In a case that is bound to make lax Delhiites, who ignore frequent warnings by police to get their servants verified, sit up and take notice, the Delhi Police arrested a husband and wife for running a gang of thieves who would work as domestic help and decamp with valuables at the first opportunity.
The couple, who ran a maid placement agency in South Delhi, used to send maids trained in the art of stealing, to posh localities to rob unsuspecting house owners of cash and jewellery.
Sometimes, the wife herself would go to the houses as a maid and commit thefts. The couple, who had been running the operation for a long time ran out of luck when they struck in the house of a famous diamond trader.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South district, Ishwar Singh, said that they have also recovered stolen goods including diamond jewellery and electronic items worth over Rs 80 lakh from them.
The DCP further said the husband and wife identified as Vijay (43) and Manisha Singh (35) told police that since 2005, they had started and closed various placement agencies beginning with Kalka Maid Services at Kilokari near Ashram area of South-East Delhi.
Vijay and Manisha who hail from Odisha, managed to commit many thefts in South Delhi household through maids over the years, he added.
“Manisha, who would sometimes go as the maid, would flee with expensive jewellery and cash from the houses of the employers. After every planned and good heist, they would return to their native place in Odisha to lie low for some time,” said the DCP.
“It is suspected that they recruited thieves to work in wealthy households in the garb of domestic help and commit robberies. They used to leave the city after the theft and then return to the city to recruit new people,” the DCP said.
They would scout for the local security guards, washermen, car-washers etc, who form the underbelly of affluent localities and soon, would gain knowledge about prospective clients who were looking for maids, said Singh.
Following the same modus operandi, in August 2016, they had committed a theft in North-West Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area and in Faridabad.
On March 19, Nishu Tripathi, a resident of Vasant Kunj filed a police complaint alleging that jewellery worth Rs 50 lakh had been stolen from her residence. “The burglary took place while the couple was out. They had hired a maid named Manisha, a day prior to the incident and she was also missing,” added Singh.
Manisha had got to know that the maid working at the complainant’s house had left work, a week ago. After getting to know that Nishu’s husband is a diamond trader, she offered her services as a maid through a casual acquaintance and within a day of being employed, decamped with the valuables, police said.
The employer had not insisted upon police verification which made their task easy.
The investigators tried the cell phone number allegedly belonging to the missing
maid but it was found to be switched off.
An analysis of the call detail records showed that Manisha used to visit a particular area and a maid, who knew Manisha was found there.
The maid said that though she had recommended Manisha to the complainant, she didn’t know anything about her since they had only met casually.
It was learnt that Manisha had returned to Delhi a couple of months back.
An investigation of some placement agencies revealed that over the past few months, many such agencies had opened and shut shop after being functioning for a short period.
A search of these “closed” placement agencies revealed that most of them were being run by same persons. The phone numbers that were used by the agencies were found to have belonged to the same persons.
The husband and wife were arrested from Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station while they were about to leave Delhi, the DCP said.
It has also been found that they used to buy artificial jewellery that resembled the jewellery stolen by them so that in case they are questioned during their journey to Odisha, they could show that they were carrying artificial jewellery with the bills, said another investigating officer.
The couple have two children who are staying in their native village in Odisha. The accused were produced in Patiala House Court after their arrest and have been sent to 14 days’ judicial custody.