Six months on, no trace of woman who stole Rs 28-lakh valuables from two houses

“The suspect had come to their (Anandi’s) building and had asked the watchman if anybody needed a domestic help. The watchman then called the senior citizen and asked her if he should send the woman,” said an officer from Powai police station.

The complainant had asked the woman to show her identity card but she claimed that she would get it the next day. “Later that day, the domestic help left the house on the pretext of getting her documents. When she didn’t return, the senior citizen felt something amiss and checked her cupboard. She found that cash and valuables worth Rs 4.9 lakh were missing,” the officer added.

A case was registered with the Powai police under Section 381 (theft by servant) of the Indian Penal Code, following which a special team was formed to trace the accused.

Three months later, businessman Ashish Khandelwal was allegedly robbed of valuables worth Rs 23 lakh in a similar manner.

“In the second case, the only difference was that the woman had stayed overnight and stole the valuables while her employers were asleep. She walked away with valuables the next day under the pretext of getting her documents and never returned,” said an investigator.

“We checked the CCTV footages and found that the alleged accused fled in a rickshaw, which was hired from outside the building. After 10 days, we somehow managed to get the registration number of the rickshaw and trace the driver, seeking help from the Wadala RTO,” said an officer.

The investigators hoped that the rickshaw driver would provide leads in the case, but the driver couldn’t recollect the alleged accused’s dropping point.

The modus operandi bureau (MOB) of the Mumbai Police Department was also informed. An investigator said, “We wanted to check whether the alleged accused was earlier arrested by any department of the Mumbai police. If the accused had been arrested, the MOB would have been able to furnish details on her.”

With no leads, however, the Powai police started inquiring on the ground level, as they started questioning the watchmen of the building and the surrounding localities. All the domestic helps working in the Hiranandani township were also brought in for interrogation.

“We were looking for a lead in the case. We believed that if anyone had seen or even had a small conversation with the accused, we would have been able to trace her,” said an officer.

The accused didn’t even carry a mobile phone, said an investigator. She claimed to have resided in Ghatkopar. “We sent a team to Ghatkopar and checked with the agencies that supply maids… she did not carry a mobile phone. She knew that if she carried a mobile phone we would have got the dump data of the mobile tower and traced her,” he added.