Senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj (right) and city SP Jayant Kant address a news meet at the police headquarters in Patna on Sunday after the cash and jewellery recovery. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Check credentials before hiring a domestic help. Else, you might end up losing your hard-earned money and other valuables.

A month-and-a-half after cash and ornaments worth over Rs 60 lakh went missing from the house of Dr Gopal Prasad Sinha, a noted medical practitioner of the city, mysteriously, the perpetrator of the crime — an electrician identified as Amjad Khan — was arrested on Sunday. He had an extra-marital affair with Mani, the maid at the doctor’s house at SK Puri. She had handed Khan the keys of the almirah from which the cash and the ornaments were stolen on February 19 evening.

Rs 12.4 lakh and ornaments worth over Rs 50 lakh were recovered from Khan’s house at Lodi Katra under Khajekala police station in the Patna City area. Mani, hailing from Jharkhand, is yet to be arrested.

“The police could not suspect the maid’s involvement in the theft initially because Dr Gopal Prasad Sinha’s daughter in-law Dr Geetika Sinha had told the police that she (maid) had been with the family for the past 14 years,” Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj said.

Dr Geetika and her husband Dr Ajay Alok, both medical practitioners, stay with Dr Gopal Prasad Sinha.

The SSP said Mani was with Dr Geetika at her clinic on the day of the incident. Mani had gone out of Dr Geetika’s clinic for a while that evening. She went to the doctor’s house and returned soon after handing over the keys of the almirah’s shelf to Khan, a police officer, quoting Khan, said.

Khan, who runs an electric shop near Dr Geetika’s clinic, collected the ornaments and the cash from the shelf and kept them at his Lodi Katra house. To the utter surprise of the police, he did not spend a single paisa for one-and-a-half month. He had planned to use the money later to start a business.

“He had promised Mani to make her a partner in his business,” an investigating officer said.

Manu said the incident was reported to the SK Puri police on February 21 after Dr Geetika found the cash and the ornaments missing from the shelf of the almirah. She did not suspect Mani because she had given the latter Rs 10 lakh a day before and the money was intact, the investigating officer added.

The SSP said the police had taken the case as a big challenge and it was solved on the basis of scientific evidence. “The police personnel who worked day and night to crack the case would be suitably rewarded,” he added.