Help turns traitor with theft & taxi

A 25-year-old help at industrialist Shishir Bajoria’s Alipore home stole jewellery worth Rs 26 lakh over months and invested some of it in a taxi even as his employers continued to trust him with all the cupboard keys.

Chetan Swain, employed by the Bajorias for 10 years, was the last person the family would suspect of wrongdoing despite pieces of jewellery and other valuables going missing over the past few months.

So when police arrested Chetan last Sunday, the Bajorias had as much reason to be disillusioned at harbouring a traitor as to be relieved at the culprit being caught.

“Chetan had been working in our house for 10 years. Before that, he was employed at my cousin’s home for five years. He was the last person we would suspect of being a thief,” Bajoria told Metro.

“But when things went missing regularly, it aroused our suspicion. We lodged the police complaint only after we were absolutely sure of his involvement,” he said.

The police traced Chetan’s taxi to a Kidderpore garage, from where it used to be rented out.

The cops also identified the owner of a jewellery store in the same locality that had bought a part of the stolen jewellery.

Chetan told his interrogators that he had stashed the rest of the booty in his Orissa home.

“A team from Alipore police station has left for Orissa. The value of the stolen booty and other details will be known after the team returns,” said Damayanti Sen, the joint commissioner of police (crime).

Bajoria, who lives with his family in a 5,000sqft bungalow on Burdwan Road, lodged his police complaint on Sunday morning, stating that several pieces of wife Smita’s jewellery had gone missing one by one over a few months.

“They first noticed some jewellery missing some months ago and became alert. They realised that most of these thefts would occur when all the domestic workers except Chetan were away,” said an officer at Alipore police station.

Chetan apparently visited Orissa a few times since the serial thefts in the Bajoria bungalow started.

“It appears that he had been stealing and visiting Orissa at frequent intervals to stock the booty there,” the officer said.

Chetan told the cops that he earned Rs 80,000 by selling some ornaments at the Kidderpore jewellery store.

He bought the used taxi with that money and rented it out.