Jewellery worth ₹7.67 lakh was decamped from the house of a retired professor by the hands of her own niece and her boyfriend. The woman claimed that she learnt of the robbery when she saw the jewellery safe empty. A case of theft and common intention has been registered at Bandra police station.
According to the police sources, the complainant, a retired college professor, 78, stayed alone at her 2BHK house in Bandra and had asked her brother to stay along with her. A few months later, the woman asked her niece, Sneha, to stay with her for the night, and subsequently, the latter used to come to Bandra's home, at around 9 pm and leave the next day.
In her complaint, the retired lecturer also said that Sneha would be generally accompanied by her boyfriend Manoj, who would stay the night with her and leave together the next day. "The keys to my safe were in the bedroom, and my brother, as well as Sneha, knew about it. After staying over for the night for two months, Sneha and Manoj stopped coming. Curiously, I enquired with Sneha for the reason, but she told me that since her kids were having exams, she will not be able to come," the retired lecturer said in her statement.
In March, when the complaint went to access her safe for an event, she was surprised to find it seeped clean and all her jewellery with ₹7.67 lakh missing. Having suspected her niece Sneha and her boyfriend Manoj of having orchestrated the theft in February, when they frequented her house, the retired lecturer immediately approached the Bandra Police and lodged a complaint.
Acting on the septuagenarian's complaint, a case of theft and the common intention was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. While no arrests have been made, a police probe is underway.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey has put the protection of senior citizen on priority and asked the personnel to provide notebooks to senior citizens, which has to be signed twice a week by the beat officers and then submit it for review to the police inspector to supervise and verify every fortnight whether the beat officers have been visiting them regularly.
The other directions include that the beat officer should maintain a list of senior citizens living in their area and submit a copy of the list to the senior police inspector of their respective police station.
