Maid accused of theft jumps to her death

Mumbai: A 19-year-old woman, working as a full-time maid at an Andheri 18-floor high-rise, allegedly committed suicide on Monday, by jumping to her death, a week after her employer’s family had recovered a few stolen valuables from her bag. The incident happened at around 8.45 pm in the Oberoi Splendor building at Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road.

After the recovery, the employer, who is a senior officer with a private insurance firm, had warned the maid that he would report the theft to her parents as well as the police, as per the employer’s account given to the police. Scared and embarrassed by the fact that she would be put behind bars and her family would come to know about this, she allegedly ended her life, said police.

Deputy commissioner of police (Zone 10) Navinchandra Reddy said, “We are still awaiting the post-mortem reports and will probe the case of abetment to suicide against the deceased’s employer if any family member of the deceased approached us with a formal complaint.” The Meghwadi police registered an accidental death report in the case and spoke to the employer and his family.

The police sources said that, the deceased woman has been identified as Jyoti Patekar, who was a resident of Mumbai, before she was employed with a leading private bank as business head since the last one and half years. Patekar was employed as a full time maid at the banker’s residence through her maternal aunt’s reference. In his statement, the banker said that over a month ago he realised that a few of his valuables were going missing. When he checked with both of his full-time maids, they refused of having any knowledge about it. However, a week ago, out of mere suspicion the banker’s family checked Patekar’s bag and found the missing silver utensils. When the family confronted her, she broke down and started apologising, but the family threatened her about reporting the incident.

The whole family was present in the house during this incident. Patekar was immediately rushed to the Holy Spirit Hospital  where she was declared dead before arrival.