Theft cases involving Nepalese servants remain unsolved

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 17

Servants of Nepalese origin continue to target city residents and have fled with cash worth crores and ornaments in the past but nabbing them seems to be a daunting task for the Ludhiana Commissionerate.

On Wednesday, a Nepalese servant, after holding house owner’s wife captive, fled with Rs 25 lakh, 50-tola gold and three laptops but the Sarabha Nagar police have failed to produce any lead in the case.

Over half-a-dozen incidents have been reported in the city in the past three years, in which servants have fled with cash, and gold, diamond and silver ornaments worth several crores. Whenever any such incident occurs, police officials seem to be on toes for initial few days but later the probe hangs dry.

It is the job of the police to crack cases involving theft by servants but residents, who employ people to work in their houses without getting police verification done, are equally at fault. Most incidents, which involve servants holding family members captive and fleeing with valuables, were later found unregistered with the police.

Police Commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill has taken serious note of the violations and directed the 28 police station heads to conduct a fresh survey in their respective stations and find unlisted servants.

If SHOs find any unlisted servants of any origin, residents will be asked to get a police verification done in stipulated time, else an FIR under the Section 188 of the IPC can be registered against the employers.

Sources, however, maintained that the police could only verify the domestic help of Indian-origin but it was not possible to get the verification of Nepalese servants done as the police has to send the file to Nepal through the Home Ministry, which is a cumbersome process.

Other major thefts

May 21, 2017: Valuables worth Rs 10 lakh were stolen from the house of Yogesh, a hosiery owner, at Gurdev Nagar. Their servant, Ramesh, was alone at home as the family had gone to attend a marriage.

August 9, 2018: A servant, who had been working for 10 days at the hpuse of a businessman at Gurdev Nagar, decamped with 100-gm gold ornaments, Rs 10 lakh in cash and a Toyota Etios. The car was found abandoned at some place.

Jan 2, 2019: Dev Kumar Bahadur and his accomplice made off with cash and valuables from the house of a hosiery trader in Sector 32-A, Chandigarh Road, after serving the family food laced with sedatives.

April 4, 2019: A servant, who had been working for only four days at the house of a hosiery trader at Tagore Nagar, fled with the owner’s car, valuables and Rs 50 lakh in cash.

May 11, 2019: Mahesh Bahadur, Surinder Bahadur and unknown persons stole Rs 2 lakh cash and gold jewellery worth several lakhs from the house of a hosiery owner at Gurdev Nagar.

May 12, 2019: Nepalese servant decamped with goods from hosiery trader in Haibowal.

June 5, 2019: Nepalese servants and their accomplices decamped with cash and valuables worth around Rs 50 lakhs from the house of Manoj Dhanda while holding a woman captive.

July, 2019: A Nepalese servant employed by industrialist Raman Rishi of Model Town fled with Rs 5 lakh cash, a BMW car and over 50-tola gold ornaments. The car was recovered from Ambala.