Help lands in dragnet with stolen jewellery

 A 22-year-old domestic help and her elder brother have been arrested for theft at a house in north-west Delhi’s Ashok Vihar. Stolen jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh has been recovered, police said on Wednesday.

Manita and Ranbir were held over a complaint by Ashok Vihar phase-I resident Rajni Mittal on Sunday. Rajni reported that she had employed Manita at her house in January.

“As Manita was working sincerely and gained the family’s faith, she had access to the keys of an almirah,” said P Karunakaran, deputy commissioner of police (north-west).
However, on March 30, Rajni noticed that gold and diamond jewellery worth lakhs of rupees was missing from the almirah. “She had strong suspicion about involvement of her maid,” Karunakaran added.

Manita was interrogated, but she flatly refused her involvement and was not cooperative. Police continued to keep Manita’s movement under watch.

“Manita was finally intercepted when she was planning to leave Delhi for her native place in Bihar with some stolen jewellery,” Karunakaran said.

She broke down to sustained interrogation and disclosed that a part of the stolen jewelery was taken by Ranbir. Her statement led to Ranbir’s arrest and recovery of the stolen jewellery.

“The complainant did not suspect her intentions and was not very particular about locking the almirah and safe keeping of keys,” Karunakaran added.

Manita took advantage of the faith and started stealing jewellery for the last 10 to 15 days in parts so that immediate detection could be avoided.