Domestic helps seem to have become the latest category in the city polices list of thieves in the past couple of weeks. After the Sion police recently arrested one Ravi Gaikwad who had absconded with Rs 16 lakh worth of gold jewellery from the house where he was working as a domestic help,the Nagpada and Dadar police in the past week have also arrested servants who reportedly robbed the houses where they worked. On May 26,a garments trader Rajesh Khandelwal had registered a complaint with the Nagpada police alleging that his domestic help of two years,Dheeraj Kumar Yadav (22),had absconded with valuables worth over Rs six lakh. While Khandelwal himself was unaware of where his servant might have gone,we suspected that he must have fled to his native village in Bihar. Incidentally,Khandelwals driver,who also hailed from Bihar,told us that he knew Yadavs village and taking him along,our four-member team left for Bihar on May 28. After a 36-hour journey we reached Bihar and we further had to cover over 320 kilometres from Patna to reach the Samva village in Darbhanga district. As soon as we neared Yadavs house,we spied him and immediately arrested him, said police sub-inspector Rajaram Patil of the Nagpada police station,who had led the team. According to the police,Yadav has claimed that his friend who also reportedly had worked at the Khandelwal household had instigated him to take a chance and conduct the robbery. The police could recover Rs 4.6 lakh and a cell-phone as well as some clothes that Yadav had bought with the money. The police handed over Yadav to the Bhilor police before taking his custody,and the accused was finally brought back to the city on last Saturday. The same Saturday,the Shivaji Park police arrested 32-year-old Rama Laxman Gawli for robbing cash and jewellery worth Rs 30,000. Gawli was one of the three maids employed at the house of Sagar Marolkar and confessed to having taken gold ornaments and cash from the houses locker after opening it with a key that she happened to find. Gawli had been employed in the household since the past few months. The family consisted of the young working couple and an elderly mother. Last week,the family had registered a complaint with us reporting that some cash and valuables from their house locker were missing. Incidentally,Gawli had returned to work the following day in a bid to avoid being suspected of the theft. However,when we brought in the maids for questioning,Gawli broke down and confessed, said police sub-inspector Shashikant Yadav of the Shivaji Park police station. However unlike Dheeraj Yadav,Gawlis motive for the theft was her craving for independence. Gawli claimed that her husband had married another woman because she couldnt bear a male child for him. While Gawli has a daughter,the second wife has two sons and hence Gawli wanted to separate from her husband and shift to another house. She claimed that she had committed the theft as she wanted quick bucks to pay rent while moving into a separate house, said sub-inspector Yadav.
