Maid, spouse loot Gamdevi house

Maria Gorithi Tigga, 25, a housemaid who had been working with  architect Yatish Kini, 65, from Gamdevi for the past eight years, has been caught by the city police with booty worth Rs37.13 lakh.

Maria, who hails from Ranchi in Jharkhand, was married to Joseph, a watchman in a private company, in June 2007. During interrogation, she confessed to the crime and said she planned to settle down peacefully with her husband in Ranchi after disposing of the stolen goods.

Inspector Shyam Parulekar of Gamdevi police station said they arrested the couple from their hide-out in Panchsheel chawl at Virar. The police recovered from them the entire stolen property that included diamonds, gold and silver ornaments, silver utensils and expensive clothes.

Kini, with wife Sandhya was staying in a flat opposite Babulnath Temple. Their youngest son Abhijit, working with a multinational firm, was staying with them currently.

Their other two sons, Sanjay and Rahul, settled abroad, had come to Mumbai with their family for Abhijit’s wedding. They had brought gold ornaments with them. The family had also brought gold and diamond ornaments from their bank locker, the police said.

The police said the Kinis left for Pune to seek the blessings of Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati on November 20. When they returned at around 11.30 pm, they found the house was ransacked and ornaments and other valuables missing.

The watchman Manoj Jha  told the Kinis that Maria had left with her husband in a car. She had eight big stroller bags.