Koramangala police have arrested a woman in Bengaluru after it was discovered that she had been allegedly replacing her employer’s gold jewellery with fake ones and had stolen Rs 5 lakh-worth of gold. The accused, identified as Shanti Ravi, was working as a maid in the house of software engineer Devaki in Koramangala.
In a complaint lodged by Devaki, she alleged that Shanti, a resident of Thimmaiah Road in Bengaluru’s Shivaji Nagar, had stolen her gold chains and had replaced them with fake ones. Devaki said she became aware of this when she wore her chains, on separate occasions, to a friend’s house, where it was pointed out to her that her jewellery was not real.
On careful inspection, she noticed that her chains had been replaced with imitation pieces and alerted the police at once.
“I had gone to my friend’s house in Adugodi and she chided me for wearing a fake chain,” Devaki said. “Ashamed, I returned home and wore another one. I was puzzled as to how the chain could be fake. A few weeks later, another friend held my chain and asked why I was wearing a fake one? I was shocked. I sensed something was wrong and inspected a third gold chain, which was also fake.”
Shanti, over a period of time, searched jewellery shops for gold-covering versions of the exact chains that Devaki owned. Upon finding a match, she would reportedly replace the original gold chain with the replica she bought.
It is reported that the Koramangala police recovered around 150 grams of gold, estimated to be worth around Rs 5 lakh from Shanti.
The police are also investigating if Shanti's husband, Ravi, had any role in the crime.