Bhubaneswar: Police on Sunday urged senior citizens to augment security at their homes and verify the antecedents of prospective domestic helps before employing them.
The police advice came in the wake of a robbery at Chandrasekharpur on Wednesday.
Though the police are yet to crack the case, they suspect the involvement of the housemaid. "Investigations have revealed that the maid's son had past criminal antecedents. We are trying to nab him," said a police officer.
Two criminals had tied Subash Chandra Nayak, a senior citizen, and his wife after threatening them at gunpoint. They then decamped with gold ornaments worth lakhs and five mobile phones.
The police said that in most cases related to the involvement of domestic helps, they found it difficult to verify their identities because almost no employer keep their details.
"Though we have been insisting that the elderly verify the antecedents of their domestic helps, they ignore it. As a result, we find it difficult to trace them in crimes involving the domestic helps," said a police officer.
While senior citizens have faced several crimes such as robbery and snatching, the murder of a septuagenarian doctor couple at Sailashree Vihar in November 2015 had brought their security to the fore. The bodies of Prafulla and Sushama Mishra were found from their residence. The cops found that the two housemaids plotted the crime with robbery as the motive.
The police also advised the senior citizens to take safety measures, including installation of door chains, alarms, electronic eyeball and grille fencing. "The elderly must ask visitors about the purpose of visit before allowing them in. In the recent past, we had come across incidents of goons entering the homes of senior citizens on the pretext of maintenance of electronic appliances. We also advise them to install closed circuit television cameras at the entrances," said deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo.