Two housekeepers were booked for allegedly decamping with cash, diamonds, and gold jewellery worth approximately ₹1 crore from a bungalow in Sector 15 Part-I after sedating the occupants just two days after being hired, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, police said, adding that at least ₹55 lakh in cash, besides the jewellery, was stolen.
A businessman, aged 55 years, along with his 51-year-old wife and 27-year-old son, lived in the two-storey bungalow, police said. Investigators said the house owner had to be admitted to a private hospital in the city, where he remained in the intensive care unit for at least two days after falling ill due to the severe side effects of the sedatives given to the trio.
A senior police official said the suspects, originally from Nepal, identified themselves as a couple named Sunil Khadka and his wife, Sandhya Thapa. “Both were in their late 20s. They had started working for the family on Monday after being hired through a city-based agency,” he said, asking not to be named.
The officer said that on Wednesday night, the suspects served dinner to the family but had mixed a strong sedative in the pulse. “After having dinner, the couple and the son went to sleep in their respective rooms. It seems that after midnight, the suspects swung into action,” the officer cited above added.
“They had already sneaked in pliers, screwdrivers, an iron rod and other equipment inside their servant quarters, which they pulled out to break a metal almirah and a locker over the next few hours,” he added.
Investigators said that after collecting all the valuables and cash, the suspects contacted their associates, who reached the spot in a car and fled after picking them up. Police said the CCTV cameras installed inside the bungalow were non-functional, but the movement of the suspects and their associates was captured by a CCTV camera of another property located right in front of the bungalow. The footage showed the two suspects being picked up in a car.
Police said the family woke up late on Thursday morning, suffering from severe headaches and nausea, and soon found their locker and almirah broken, and the suspects were missing, following which police were alerted.
Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said forensic experts reached the spot and collected food samples. “They also collected the fingerprints of the two suspects from the house. Cops also recovered the equipment used in breaking the locker,” he said.
He said the documents submitted by the duo to the agency are being verified to ascertain if they were real or forged and if their police verification was carried out.
Police said any prior criminal record of the suspects is yet to be traced, adding that their antecedents will be verified and are likely to surface only after their arrest.
Turan said crime branch teams have been pressed into action to nab the suspects and recover the stolen valuables before they may attempt to cross into Nepal.
On the complaint of the couple’s son, an FIR under sections 306 (theft by clerk or servant), 331(4) (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night), 123 (causing hurt by means of poison) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered at Civil Lines police station on Thursday.