A 30-year-old woman, wanted in an alleged theft case, who was working as a domestic help of former Miss World (1998) Yukta Mookhey for the past eight days, has been arrested along with her aide on Saturday night.
Kandivali police said the accused, Sunita Valik (30), a resident of Nerul, used to steal gold and other valuables and her boyfriend Vinod Karande (33), a resident of Badlapur would sell them off. The NRI police in Navi Mumbai has arrested them in a couple of theft cases in the past.
Ms Mookhey had employed Sunita at her Andheri residence eight days ago. She had given Sunita the job after getting her contact and consulting few persons who knew her. Before that, Sunita was absconding in an alleged theft case registered at the Kandivali police station last month.
According to the police, Ms Mookhey had kept Sunita on a temporary basis to see if she was efficient before hiring her permanently. The Mumbai police, under their initiative to prevent crime, collect information on the background of domestic helps to find out if they have a prior criminal record. “Ms Mookhey had collected documents from her, but had not submitted it to the police as she wanted to check her efficiency before hiring Sunita,” assistant police inspector, Raghavendrasinh Kshirsagar said.
Senior police inspector, Hareshwar N. Pimple of Kandivali police station said, “On May 4, Sunita who used to work for Nagma Yashin Aman (48) at her residence in railway quarters at Kandivali decamped with gold valuables worth `6.5 lakh. With the help of her boyfriend Vinod she sold off some of the jewellery,”
When Nagma, who lives alone, returned home from work, she was shocked to see the door of her house unlocked. She found that valuables were missing and Sunita had disappeared.
Assistant police inspector, Raghavendrasinh Kshirsagar said, “Nagma had employed Sunita on April 26. But, she did not register the credentials of Sunita with us. We happened to get concrete leads in the case and nabbed Sunita and her boyfriend. Over 70 per cent of the valuables have been recovered. They have been remanded in our custody till June 26 by magistrate’s court.”
The Kandivali police believes that the accused would have stolen valuables from Ms Mookhey’s residence and said that the former Miss World thanked them for saving her house from getting burgled.