The Gariahat high-rise (top); the room from which the cash and jewellery were stolen. Pictures by Sanjay Chattopadhyaya

Calcutta, April 3: A recently hired domestic help allegedly escaped with Rs 25 lakh in cash and jewellery from a businessman’s flat in a Gariahat high-rise last evening after drugging a maid who died of suspected overdose.

Police said Amrit, who had been working at Pawan Drolia’s seventh-floor apartment for the past four days, was at large.

“Amrit had been recommended by a security guard who works for one of my relatives in Salt Lake. He joined barely four days ago,” Drolia, a ball-pen manufacturer, said.

“We were planning to take Amrit’s photograph and collect his personal details for submission to the local police station, but all this (the robbery) happened before that,” Drolia said.

“Amrit had claimed he was from Nepal,” the businessman added.

Yesterday morning, Drolia had left for his factory, Progressive Industries, in Belgachhia with his 27-year-old son Akash. Drolia’s wife Asha too left home around 3.30pm to meet her parents, leaving maid Annapurna Sharma alias Munnibai in the house.

The police said that Munnibai, who was in her mid-50s, had been hired by the Drolias three months ago. Her brother is a long-time employee at Drolia’s factory.

Akash, who returned home at 6.30 in the evening, found the door locked from inside. After the calling bell went answered, he opened the door with a duplicate key and realised that the lights had been switched off.

“I felt something was wrong and switched on the fans and the light immediately,” Akash said.

“I called out for a glass of water but got no reply. After sometime, I went to my parent’s room and found it ransacked. I rushed back to find Munnibai unconscious. I immediately informed my parents and called a doctor.”

The police said preliminary investigations revealed that Amrit had drugged Munnibai and escaped with the valuables between 4pm and 5.30pm.

“After the woman was drugged, the door to the master bedroom was broken and all the three wooden cupboards were ransacked for valuables and cash,” a senior officer said at Gariahat police station.

“It is unlikely that Amrit did it all by himself. It appears that more than one person was involved.”

The police have questioned two security guards who lived with Amrit in Park Circus. The guards work in two other buildings in the city.

Officers said Amrit was close to one Arjun Sonar, a neighbour. The police have found Amrit’s clothes in Sonar’s home. Sonar too is missing.