Rupa Chanda might have met with the same fate as Ravindra Kaur Luthra. But true grit and presence of mind helped the Salt Lake resident, aged around 50, survive the lethal blow delivered by her domestic help.

Chanda also trapped the woman and handed her over to police. “I could not make out from her looks and behaviour that she could be murderous,” Chanda said of the help, Deepali Biswas, whom she engaged on February 2. The near-fatal blow, on her head, came a week later, on Saturday.

Chanda runs a skin-care parlour near her house in AC block. Her husband and son are in the US on a business trip, while her daughter lives with her family in Calcutta.

Recalling Saturday’s events, Chanda said Deepali came to work around 9.30 am. “She gave me a cup of tea, drinking which I felt a little uneasy and fell asleep. When I woke up, I felt a pain on the back of my head. I passed it off as headache and left for the parlour.”

She returned in the afternoon for lunch. “I felt uneasy again after taking the meal. This time, my senses grew numb and my vision became blurred. Yet, I could sense that Deepali was trying to open the locker of my almirah.”

Chanda managed to pull herself together and challenged the maid, who attacked her with a pestle. “I ducked but the pestle hit the back of my head.”

Chanda ran to the main door and shut it to prevent Deepali from fleeing. The maid then headed for the roof-top door, but it was locked.

Chanda alerted her neighbours and employees of her parlour, who rushed in. Deepali was soon overpowered and handed over to police.

Sounding a note of warning to all Salt Lake residents, North 24-Parganas police superintendent Praveen Kumar said a section of burglars has deployed women as agents in the township. These women enter households as domestic help and either carry out the burglary themselves or pass on information to the gang.

Kumar urged residents to keep police posted about their domestic help.