Police arrests 28-year-old maid on the charges of theft.

BENGALURU:The Koramangala police arrested a 28-year-old maid on the charges of stealing gold chains from her employer’s house and put fake ones in their place. The thefts of the three chains was when her employer, who is a software engineer, was asked by her friends why she was wearing fake chains when she possessed original jewellery.

Shanti Ravi, a resident of Shivajinagar, was arrested by the police following a complaint registered by Devaki, a resident of Koramangala III Stage. In her complaint, Devaki stated the gold chains she had bought had been replaced with fakes. Police suspected the thefts to be the handwork of an insider and interrogated Shanti. Sleuths found she had been arrested before on the charges of two other theft cases registered in Pulikeshi Nagar and Shivaji Nagar stations. After obtaining bail, she began working for Devaki. During interrogation, Shanti had first denied the charges, but when confronted with the other cases, police say she confessed of Committing the crimes.

Police said Shanti had searched every jewellery shop for exact gold-plated replicas of the chains Devaki had. She studied the designs and measured the lengths so as to evade detection. Armed with an exact fake, she would steal the original and replace it with a fake.

Devaki told police she never realised the chains she wore were fake until her friends pointed it out to her during Varamahalakshmi celebrations. “I had gone to my friend’s house in Adugodi and she chided me for wearing a fake chain. Ashamed, I returned home and wore another one. I was puzzled how the chain turned to a fake. A few weeks later, another friend held my chain and asked me why I was wearing a fake one? I was shocked. I sensed something was wrong at home and inspected a third gold chain, which also was a fake.” Devaki told the police.