23 March,2012 07:28 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
To prove her 'innocence' the accused, now arrested, turned up for work the next day; police suspect she has committed similar crimes in the past
Good help is hard to find these days. But it isn't her inefficiency that led to 26-year-old Reshma Khan's arrest. Kasturba Marg police nabbed the domestic help yesterday for allegedly looting a senior citizen after securing a job at her house. Police officials said the woman's husband was involved in serious crimes like murder earlier.
Hide and seek: Reshma confessed to cops that she had robbed the
gold ornaments and hid them behind a switchboard at her house.
Representation pic
According to cops, Reshma was working for a Borivli (East) resident as a maid. The 70-year-old complainant Lalaben Pannalal Shah, who lives in Samarth Sadan building at Carter Road, had not registered Reshma with the police. She had, however, taken down her contact number.
Won't wash!
On Tuesday, while taking Shah for a bath, Reshma had removed her employer's gold chain and other ornaments. After the laving, the maid had snagged all the valuables and left the house. Shah realised later she had been robbed. She asked Reshma about the jewellery the next day when she came to work. Reshma feigned ignorance and asked her employer to search her house if she did not believe her. Shah approached the police and registered a complaint. Since cops did not have proof against the accused, they came up with a plan to make Reshma reveal the truth.
"We had Reshma's mobile number. However, if we had waited to trace the location of the phone, it would have taken 15 days due to the procedure. To save time so that Reshma could not flee, one of our officers called up on her mobile, pretending to be looking for a domestic help," said API Pradeep Rawrane from Kasturba Marg police station.
Runs in the family
The officer told Reshma that the prospective employer was a senior citizen, who lived alone and had to be taken care of. Reshma agreed to work for the 'fictitious' person. "We had spoken to the accused and called her near the gate of a building. Since we had only suspected Reshma, we decided to meet her and begin inquiry.
When we reached the spot we realised she was the wife of Ashfaq, who was earlier arrested by Charkop police for murdering a person and dumping the body at Aksa beach. We detained Reshma. However, even after investigations she denied to have robbed Shah," said Rawrane. The police then interrogated the accused and she finally confessed to cops that she had robbed the gold ornaments and hid them behind a switchboard at her house. Following the directions, police officials recovered Shah's jewellery worth Rs 1 lakh.
Reshma has been arrested and cops are now conducting inquiries to find out how many moreu00a0-- if anyu00a0-- such senior citizens she has robbed in the past.
