Maid, accomplice nabbed with Rs 4.17 lakh booty

Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone-III) Sunil Paraskar received information that six women inmates of the reformation centre at Mudhka, Pune had escaped and managed to get jobs as maid servants in Chembur, Mumbai. He set up a squad of officers from the Byculla police station to track down the women.

However, the police could arrest only Sangeeta and her boyfriend-cum-associate Prashant Gavare and recovered gold ornaments, diamonds and cash worth over Rs 4.17 lakh from the duo. The accused admitted to their involvement in at least three thefts.

Sangeeta had committed two thefts in the jurisdiction of the Byculla police and one in the area of Nagpada police station. Sangeeta’s modus operandi was simple. After boyfriend Gavare collected information about households with only a couple who were badly in need of a maid, Sangeeta soon followed looking for a job and mostly got it.

Desperate families employed her without checking her antecedents. Like Siraj Vishwas at Nagpada. It was Sangeeta’s first job after her escape from Pune. Within hours of joining she decamped with jewelry and diamonds worth over Rs 3.98 lakh.

Similarly, she had committed a theft in the house of Sadruddin Khetani in February this year. When Khetani’s wife had gone to another room to feed her baby, Sangeeta sneaked into the bedroom and stole ornaments worth Rs 30,000. Surprisingly, the Byculla police had earlier arrested her twice in different cases. According to the senior police inspector Vijay Chandshive, “She has admitted to her involvement in at least two cases. We are investigating further.”

Meanwhile, the other five women who escaped the Pune centre along with Sangeeta are still at large. “We are concentrating on thefts committed by Sangeeta. About those girls we are yet to look into the matter,” a senior police official said.