Former cook stages comeback, loots jewellery worth Rs. 90 lakh

Days after he was fired, a cook walked back into a South Delhi home claiming he had been hired again by one of a family of four, who was out on vacation. Two days into his “second stint”, the man walked away with jewellery worth Rs. 90 lakh.

Brijesh, the 20-year-old accused, was arrested from his hometown Badaun. The South District police reportedly recovered Rs. 8,500 and the jewellery he had not disposed of.

Theft unnoticed for a week

For a week, the other occupants of the Vasant Vihar house remained unaware of the theft. In fact, they did not even bother to probe the sudden reappearance of the former employee, said the police.

According to the police, no police verification was carried out for Brijesh.

Question remain about why jewellery worth lakhs was kept at home and how the robbery went undetected despite two members of the family being present in the house.

The victim Namrata Agarwal told The Hindu that her family had hired Brijesh last October. His services after terminated after the family hired Brijmohan.

“He would take offs every now and then. Towards the last few days, his attitude had worsened. When he did not mend his ways, we were not left with any other choice but to ask him to leave,” said Ms. Agrawal.

Ms. Agrawal and her daughter had left for Europe for a vacation on June 6.

Her husband and son were in town when Brijesh, who had befriended his replacement in the house during his last few days there, came to know about his former employer’s travel plans and sniffed a chance, said the police.

“I left on June 6. He showed up the next day and claimed that I had asked him to come. My husband called me to check and I told him that he should wait till my return. Till then, I asked him to tell Brijesh not to come,” said Ms. Agrawal. According to her, the accused stop coming after June 10.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ishwar Singh said that when Ms. Agrawal returned on June 16, she found the cupboard and drawers in her room open.

“She found diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs. 90 lakh and cash amounting to Rs. 20,000 missing. She reported the matter immediately,” said Mr. Singh.

No police verification

The first hurdle the police faced was the lack of records as no police verification had been done.

“However, the complainant had some details with her. Our teams conducted raids at his possible hideouts in village Manakpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district. Brijesh somehow sensed police presence and fled from his village,” said Mr. Singh.

Arrested from UP

He added that the team then received an input about Brijesh hiding at the house of his maternal aunt.

“The police team, in order to track Brijesh’s movement, sent a decoy posing as an executive of a service provider to verify ID proof, which revealed that he was hiding at his maternal aunt’s house in Babral village in Uttar Pradesh. We arrested him from there after a raid,” said Mr. Singh.

The 20-year-old accused was arrested from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh with the jewellery