Mumbai: Police have arrested a caretaker for robbing a senior citizen, relative of a Union minister at Andheri. The accused, a 21-year-old youth, had stolen gold and valuables worth Rs 4 lakh from the senior citizen’s home and he was traced within two hours after the incident. Andheri Police have booked him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Police said, the complainant, in her mid-seventies, was bedridden after her movement below waist was restricted due to neurological condition. The woman’s husband travels overseas for work and her daughter shunts between India and overseas.
Last week, after the woman’s regular caretaker went for a leave, the complainant’s family hired a replacement caretaker, Avinash Salunkhe, 21, through a private agency, for the meantime.
Salunkhe joined work as a caretaker on October 15 and suspiciously stopped reporting to work on October 26. The senior citizen, who could barely walk, checked all her valuables stored in the locker and cupboard, only to find her jewellery missing.
The missing items included a gold family heirloom weighing 10 tolas, gold chains, managalsutras and cash worth Rs 4 lakh. She informed her family, and two of her sisters came for her help and approached Andheri Police.
Police immediately swung in action and got his phone number from the senior citizen’s family, after which he was traced in suburban Mumbai.
Police said, it was tricky to track him as the family had not run a background check on him and neither did they get his identity proof, photograph or past criminal record.
Police teams were fanned out and Salunkhe was nabbed within two hours, said Rajesh Kale, senior inspector of Andheri police station. Of the robbed items, police have recovered the 10 tolas gold necklace worth Rs 3 lakh and are trying to recover the remaining items.
