Former maid, paramour arrested for robbing French national's house

New Delhi, April 22 (IANS) Police Sunday solved the daylight robbery at a French national's house in south Delhi's Anand Niketan with the arrest of the two accused.

According to police, the accused, Ashok Kumar, 27, tried to enter the house of Gilles Dominique Cannaud Ribes April 17, after he had left for work, claiming that Ribes had called him for a driver's job.

Kumar left when Ribes's maid servant, Lily Thomas, who was alone at home, called up Ribes' wife who denied knowledge about any such job.

However, he returned after some time and overpowered Thomas with a knife. Leaving her tied and gagged, he was ransacking the house when Ribes' wife returned home.

He overpowered and tied her up as well, before fleeing with jewellery worth Rs.10 lakh, besides some cash, ATM cards and other valuables.

Investigating the theft, police enquired about the family's previous servants and neighbours, and identified the accused as the husband of Rozi, 33, who had worked at Ribes' home six months ago.

It was found that purchases had been made using stolen cards and after interrogating the shopkeepers where the cards had been used, it was found that a couple, whose description matched with Rozi and her husband, used the cards for various purchases.

Upon further investigation, police found Rozi's real husband Praveen, was lodged in Tihar jail in connection with a murder.

After extensive enquiry, Rozi and Kumar were nabbed from Chilla village of Mayur Vihar area in east Delhi. Upon sustained interrogation, Kumar confessed to the crime.

The jewellery, Rs.10,000 cash and the stolen ATM cards were recovered, besides articles such as oven purchased from the card and the motorcycle used for the crime.

It was revealed that Kumar was married but had developed intimacy with Rozi, following which his wife left him. The two were in dire need of money to make ends meet and planned the robbery since Rozi knew about the jewellery at Ribes' house.