Mumbai Crime: Three-woman gang poses as maids to burgle homes

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The Bandra police have arrested three women who worked as house-cleaning staff but took their job description a bit too seriously - they cleaned out their clients' houses of cash and valuables as well.

The accused women used to take on work as househelp, and then make duplicates of the house keys. The accused have been identified as Anisha Jani Shaikh, 45, Nirmala Appasaheb Kamble Alias Anita, 42, and Gulzar Makbul Shaikh, 40, all residents of the MHADA colony in Dharavi at Sion East. The police have also recovered stolen gold jewellery worth Rs 40 lakh from their possession. According to police officials, the accused were involved in several instances of burglaries across the city.

The complaint against them was filed by Shafiq Jagani, 78, an investor and resident of Grand Bay Apartment at 17 Hill Road near Mehboob Studio in Bandra West. The complainant's sister is an NRI whose house is also in the same society. Jagani used to clean her house once a month and would hire cleaning staff for that. Jagani's other sister contacted Gulzar Shaikh for cleaning the house.

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On April 14, Shaikh cleaned the house and returned the house keys back to Jagani. On May 6, when Jagani checked the cupboards, jewellery worth Rs 4 lakh was missing. During the investigations, police relied on CCTV cameras of other buildings around the home, and found that Gulzar and the other two accused had come back a few days after the cleaning job, which led the police to suspect them. They were picked up for questioning and arrested after inquiries.