Domestic helps on stealing spree, owners fail to carry out police verification

Ludhiana: There is no respite in theft cases executed by domestic helpers in the city. Though the city police have asked residents to get verification of domestic helps done, but no step has been taken to ensure that the order is being followed by residents or not.

As per the data provided by the city police, posh areas are reluctant in getting verification done.

The city police are now planning to launch a mobile application to make the verification process easier for residents. The resident welfare associations will be pitched in for the same.

The data collected till August this year, verification of only 16 domestic helpers have been done so far in Sarabha Nagar.

In ather posh areas under the PAU police station, only 137 verification has been done. 331 in Model Town, 251 in Division Number 5, 173 in Jamalpur and only 43 in Division Number 8.

So far, total 3,384 servant verifications have been done in Ludhiana commissionrate.

Importantly, the city police have been registering cases against the owners of labour quarter for not getting tenant verification done under Section of 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

However, no FIR has been lodged against any employer of posh areas for the same reason.

On Wednesday too, a Nepalese domestic help Raju escaped with Rs 25 lakh in cash and jewellery from his employer’s house in Panchsheel Colony of Sarabha Nagar. The accused tied his employer with the help of two aides. Raju wash hired by the employer two weeks ago without police verification.

In July this year, a door-to-door campaign was also started by Ludhiana police to aware people about getting police verification of domestic helps and tenants. However, the campaign was stopped.

Commissioner of police Rakesh Agarwal said: “To get verification easier for residents, we are planning to launch a mobile application. We are also planning to pitch-in the resident welfare associations who will be trained to fill details online and make payment for the same.”

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From where to get servants?

Neither the police administration nor the labour department has list of authorised agencies which provide domestic helps. In this case, residents are left with no option. There have been numerous cases in which residents approach agency providing domestic helps and land in trouble later.

Issued by Ludhiana police: Tips to prevent theft by helpers

1. Do not keep valuables at home.

2. Ensure safety check when hiring a domestic help. Hiring through a reputed agency as they check the background of the helpers.

3. Get police verification done within 15 days. There are cases where house owners did not even have photograph of their domestic help. Submit the form with the recent photograph of the domestic help at the times of police veiefication.

4. Security gadgets and close circuit CCTVs must be installed in places where the domestic helpers work alone for long hours. Also make sure your domestic help is not aware of such electronic monitoring.

5. With cooperation of people and neighbours, a crime can be prevented in a better way.

6. Don’t display money and gold items in front of your maids.

7. Always click photograph of your domestic help as soon as he joins the service. Also take his mobile number. Most of the crime by domestic servants happen within the first 15 days of joining.

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Previous incidents

November 4 | Hires a month ago without police verification, a domestic help named Soni Devi along with two unidentified minor girls, executed burglary at her employer Naveen Kumar’s house in Sita Nagar near of Bharat Nagar Chowk. According to the police, the employers reportedly incurred a loss of Rs 4 lakh.

June 7 | Two domestic helps Mann and Sarita escaped with cash and jewellery from their employer’s house in Gurdev Nagar. The accused tied the employer Reeta Dhand, 56, after giving her sedative and escaped. The accused took the CCTV recording and mobile of the employer in which she had kept the scanned copy of ID proofs of the accused. The theft was stated to be around Rs 90 lakh. Both the helps were hired by the family without police verifications a week before the incident.

May 8 | Two accused Karan, who posed as the owner of a placement agency, and Yogita, a domestic help, reached the house of a dying unit owner of Raghunath Enclave, Neeraj Sharma. Karan took Rs 40,000 in cash and left the house and within an hour’s time, Yogita also fled after scaling the boundary wall of the house. While escaping, Yogita also stole gold bangles of Sharma’s daughter-in-law.

May 5 | Naval Jain, a businessman, approached the accused through a website on May 4 and asked for a domestic helper. The deal was fixed at Rs 31,000 commission and Rs 5,000 monthly salary for the domestic help. On May 5, Sudhira Devi along with the domestic help reached at Jain’s house and left after taking Rs 31,000 in cash. Minutes later, the domestic help also escaped from there.

May 11 | Hired two days ago, a domestic help Surendra Kumar escaped with Rs 2 lakh in cash and jewellery from his employer Nand Kishor’s house in Gurdev Nagar after locking another servant in a room and giving sedatives to another help.

May 10 | Hired four days ago, 18-year-old domestic help Vivek Bahadur, of Nepal, executed theft at employer Brij Mhana Kundra’s house in Dugrapuri and escaped with Rs 3 lakh in cash and gold jewellery.

April 22 | A domestic help Kalpana, 45, of Nepal escaped with Rs 7 lakh in cash and gold jewellery from the house of her employer Rajeev Arora in Gurdev Nagar. The family had gone to Delhi to attend a marriage function.

April 9 | Domestic help Vipul Mishra of Uttar Pradesh stole two gold bangles, one gold bracelet and 30 Scotland pounds from his owner Rajesh Agarwal’s house in Agar Nagar.

April 4 | Hired a week ago without police verification, domestic help Krishan along with his unidentified accomplices executed burglary at his employer Navneet Gupta’s house in Tagore Nagar. The family had gone to Dubai. To execute burglary, Krishan gave sedative to another help Raju and escaped with Rs 4 lakh in cash, jewllery and a Volkswagen Pollo car.

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Orders of verification

Ludhiana police commissioner Rakesh Agarwal issued orders under Section 144 of CrPC making police verification of helpers or tenants mandatory.

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Punishment for violation of order

An employer can be booked under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC. The accused can get an imprisonment from one month which may extend up to six months and a fine of Rs 200 which may extend to Rs 1,000.