The stolen goods seized from Mina. (Suman Tamang)

Darjeeling, Sept. 15: A 45-year-old maid was arrested from a house near Siliguri this morning for allegedly stealing jewellery worth Rs 8 lakh from a BJP leader’s house in Darjeeling a few days ago.

Mina Saha was later produced in the chief judicial magistrate’s court here and remanded in 14 days’ judicial custody.

According to the police, the woman, who is fluent in Bengali as well as Nepali, had looted many houses where she had worked in the past and had even served a jail term for theft in Gangtok a few years ago.

An officer said Mina, a resident of Raiganj in North Dinajpur, would strike with perfection after she won the confidence of the family which engaged her as a maid.

G.S. Yonzone, the Darjeeling district hill president of the BJP, was the last victim of Mina who had many aliases like Mira, Manju and Purnima. The leader was away in Delhi as a member of an all-party delegation to attend a discussion on Gorkhaland when his residence was burgled at the intervening night of September 9 and 10.

Mina Saha after her arrest. (Suman Tamang)

“Mina’s modus operandi was simple. When she found that her employers trusted her, she would spray some chemicals, most probably chloroform, on them. When the family members fell unconscious, the woman would clean up the house and flee. She adopted the same method at Yonzone’s house also,” said N.T. Sherpa, the inspector-in-charge of Darjeeling Sadar police station.

“Yonzone’s wife Dawa was feeling sick and dizzy when she woke up around 5 in the morning on September 10. Soon, she realised that the maid had decamped with all ornaments worth Rs 8 lakh,” said Sherpa. Mina had started working in Yonzone’s house on September 6.

Mitra Rai, a sub-inspector, was sent to Raiganj on September 13 to track down Mina. “We got a tip-off that the woman had been staying in a rented house at Naxalbari near Siliguri. When we raided her house early this morning, she was hiding under a bed. All gold ornaments that had been stolen from Yonzone’s house were recovered,” said Rai.

Sherpa said: “Mina had burgled many houses before in the similar way. She had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for theft in Gangtok some time ago. We have come to know that the house of a government official at Englishbazar had also been looted by Mina recently.”

The police today made an appeal to the residents to verify the credentials of probable maids before hiring them.