KOCHI: It had all the narrative of a robbery when a housemaid approached the police stating that a person had barged into the house where she was working and robbed all gold jewellery, including her chain, after tying her up. According to her statement, the incident occurred on March 1 when she was alone at the house, and the owners were away.
Based on her statement, Muvattupuzha Police launched a detailed probe but found the 65-year-old housemaid’s version unconvincing. “There were discrepancies in her statement,” says Circle Inspector K N Rajesh. “We had doubts that the whole story was a fabrication, but didn’t want to come to a conclusion based on mere intuition.”
Officers conducted a detailed inspection of the house and found that her statements didn’t corroborate the evidence. Though the woman stated the intruder used physical force to tie her up in a chair and forcefully inserted cloth into her mouth to keep her silent, a medical examination and forensic analysis couldn’t give any convincing inputs to prove her version.
After conducting the medical examination and the forensic analysis of the crime scene, the police prepared a list of possible suspects. “We checked the antecedents of each suspect, which also included the family members of the house,” says a senior officer.
“The mobile tower location of each suspect was verified to corroborate their statement. We weeded out the suspects one by one from the list and finally zeroed in on the housemaid.” officer. The housemaid was subjected to detailed questioning for three days, and she finally spilled the beans. She cooked up the whole robbery story to steal the gold jewellery from the house where she had been working for the past year.
Police recovered the jewellery, which she had hidden at various places in and around the house. “She planned to end her job at the house after a few days and leave the spot with the gold ornaments,” says the officer. The accused, identified as Padmini of Kumaramangalam, was arrested and remanded to judicial custody.