Home-alone Woman Attacked; Male Servant Flees With Jewels

CHENNAI: A young man who recently began working as a house-worker in a household in Purasaiwakkam allegedly grievously injured his mistress on the head using an iron rod and escaped with nearly 500 grams of gold jewellery and `3 lakh.

The woman, A Sangeetha, who was left bleeding and unconscious for hours, is undergoing treatment and is in a serious condition.

The police have launched a manhunt for Dilip, the house-worker, who hails from Bihar and began helping Sangeetha in her household a few weeks ago.

The accused is believed to be 23 years old and was staying with one of his relatives in the city.

City police have also stepped up vigil along the rail-routes to Bihar to nab the suspect.

The brutal robbery came to light on Saturday evening around 5 pm when Sangeetha’s husband, Ashok Jain, a real-estate businessman, returned to the flat on the seventh floor of Arihant Vaikunt.

Strangely, the flat was locked from the outside and Sangeetha was also not responding to phone calls from 2 pm. When Jain, with the help of some neighbours, broke open the door, they found Sangeetha lying in a pool of blood with the jewellery and cash missing from the cupboards.

“It seems the incident took place in the afternoon hours and we are examining the CCTV recordings in the apartment. We are questioning the agents who introduced the suspect to work in the flat. Dedicated teams are working to trace him,” said a police officer.

The couple’s children were also away on Saturday afternoon, which police said the suspect exploited to carry out the robbery. The CCTV footage also shows Dilip moving out of the apartment in the afternoon hours.

Similar robberies carried out by or with the help of housekeepers are not uncommon in Chennai. In November 2014, while investigating a robbery carried of a doctor’s wife in Anna Nagar at gun-point, the police learned that it was with the collusion of a woman maid and her husband.

In the same month, a 50-year-old woman, who joined as a maid in a house at Velachery, gagged a elderly woman, who was living alone, and escaped with nearly 12 sovereign and `50,000 in cash. Meanwhile, Sangeetha’s condition is said to be serious and she is undergoing treatment in a private hospital.

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The New Indian Express
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