Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) on Saturday night arrested a woman who posed as domestic help and stole 20 bhori of gold from a house in the capital’s Najirabazar area last year.
The woman, identified as Amena, was arrested from Comilla’s Daudkandi upazila.
DMP DB Additional Deputy Commissioner Saifur Rahman Azad confirmed news of the arrest and said Amena had confessed to stealing the gold and fencing it to jewellery shop owner Abul Hashem for Tk1.28 lakh.
DB also raided Abul Hashem’s shop in the Tatibazer area of Dhaka and arrested him. The jewellery shop owner said he had already melted down and sold the gold.
“Amena is a professional thief. We suspect she has committed similar crimes before,” ADC Saifur said, adding that she had given her confessional statement before the court under Section 164 and they are investigating any other crimes she may have committed.
On August 29 last year, a female broker named Kohinur came to the house of Dr Bichitra Rani De and offered Amena as a potential hire. The doctor is a working mother of two children and was desperately looking for someone to look after them while she and her husband were at work.
As she was in dire need, Dr Bichitra hired Amena without verifying her identity. While Dr Bichitra and her husband were away at work, Amena locked the two children in a room of the house, broke into a locker and stole the 20 bhori of gold on her first day on the job.
After returning home and finding out what had transpired, the doctor and her husband filed a case with Banshal police station. However, they were not able to provide much information on Amena as they did not have a picture, NID number or address for her.
DB first arrested broker Kohinur, but she was also unable to provide much information on Amena. The detectives continued to follow leads and were finally able to track the burglar down nearly a year later.