Kolkata: The Chetla Police arrested 11 persons — four of them employed as domestic helps — for conspiring to steal jewelery and other precious items from an apartment in Raja Santosh Roy Road in Alipore. Police said the total amount of theft reported was pegged at Rs 1.2 crore, of which items worth Rs 1 crore, including jewelery have been recovered.Among the arrested is a nanny, a cook and two domestic who were employed in the flat.
According to Joint CP (crime and traffic) Rupesh Kumar, the case was initially recorded on the basis of a complaint from businessman Amit Singh. “The main accused, Jhuma Das, worked for two years. None of them are related. Each one stays in a different area: Kulti, Kultali, and Metiabruz. Some of the accused left the job about four months ago. The theft took place Over two years. Even the complainant came to us multiple times to update what exactly was missing from his residence,” said an officer.
According to the initial complaint, Samar Naskar (34), Jhuma Das (41), and Supriya Purkait (35), the housekeeping staff, the child’s caregiver, and cook respectively, committed theft on Dec 7 and 24. Among the items that went missing were a heart-shaped single-piece diamond bracelet and a pair of diamond earrings. Singh also lodged another complaint for the theft of more valuable items, which included some silver utensils, gold and silver coins, antique coins, and one diamond ring. The total amount was above Rs 1 crore, said Kumar.
Following the complaint, Chetla Police arrested all the four. Another employee, Saraswati Das (27), was arrested for direct complicity in this case. They were interrogated and on Dec 30 a search was conducted at the residence of accused Jhuma Das in the Metiaburuz area, where most of the stolen articles were recovered. All the accused are now in police custody until Jan 6.
During the investigation, seven more persons were arrested, all of them receivers of the stolen items. They have been identified as Priyanka Das (24), Rumi Singh (49), Ashok Jana (40), Sanat Fadikar (40), Prasenjit Manna (34), Tanmay Ojha (34), and Mihir Raha alias Rakhi (42).