The Thane Police Crime Branch on Monday arrested a 17-year-old girl for allegedly attacking her employer, for whom she worked as a housemaid, and fleeing with her gold jewellery earlier this month.
Police said Chhabubai Garaje (65), who stays by herself in Adarshnagar, Ulhasnagar, had employed the girl as domestic help on September 7 on a reference by one of her neighbours.
“The same evening, the accused hit Ms. Garaje on the head with a rolling board used for making chapatis, and fled the house with a gold necklace worth ₹1.19 lakh. Ms. Garaje was found by some neighbours, who took her to Fortis Hospital in Kalyan and admitted her to the Intensive Care Unit,” according to a Thane Crime Branch officer.
An FIR was registered against the accused with the Ulhasnagar police station, and the Ulhasnagar unit of the Thane Crime Branch was instructed to conduct parallel inquiries. The first hurdle that the police faced was the complete lack of information about the accused. They only had her first name.
“We spoke to Ms. Garaje’s neighbour, who had recommended her. She told us that the girl used to sell snacks outside Ulhasnagar railway station, which is where they got to know each other. We drew up a list of all cellphone numbers active through the area and tracked their movements till we found one number which had moved from the station to Ms. Garaje’s place along with her neighbour’s,” an officer who was part of the investigation said.
The police drew up the call records of the number and identified some of the frequently dialled numbers, after which inquiries were initiated with the owners of these numbers.
“While making inquiries with her friends, we learned that she was going to meet a friend in the Gulshan Nagar area in Shahad on Monday. We laid a trap and took the accused into custody. The girl, an orphan, has spent her childhood in foster care and has grown up in extreme poverty. She confessed that easy access to Ms. Garaje’s jewellery was too tempting for her to resist,” the officer said.
The girl has been booked for robbery and attempt to murder under the Indian Penal Code and sent to the juvenile remand home in Bhiwandi. Ms. Garaje was discharged from the hospital on Monday, and her necklace recovered, officers said.
