Mumbai: Close on the heels of the Nepean Sea Road murder allegedly committed by teen house help, the Juhu police have arrested a 36-year-old caretaker who tried to strangle his employer before fleeing with gold worth Rs 1.25 lakh.
In another stark similarity with the Nepean Sea Road case wherein the accused was hired 24 hours earlier before the crime, Ankit Patil, too, tried to kill the 81-year-old woman at her Juhu residence, a day after being employed.
According to the police, Patil was hired on March 13 by Kunjibla Mehta and her 85-year-old husband, whose children live abroad, through a security agency. At around 1pm the next day, the accused called the woman to the bathroom on the pretext of fixing a tap.
Patil then attempted to rob her ornaments and when she resisted, he tried to strangle her. Subsequently, he snatched Mehta's gold chain and a gold bangle, and fled.
After getting an alert from her husband, the cops arrived at the scene and examined the CCTV footage. Within 48 hours, Patil was arrested at 'New Metro Guest House' in Dhobi Talao, south Mumbai.
Senior Inspector Sunil Jadhav said, “The accused initially fled to the Santacruz railway station before leaving Mumbai. He eventually arrived at Dhobi Talao. An orphan from Jalgaon, Patil has been residing in south Mumbai for many years. He was a waiter (before being employed by the Mehtas).
While the accused has been remanded in police custody until March 20, the police have not disclosed the name of the security agency which helped them get recruited by the Mehtas.
