Woman held for poisoning, looting elderly couple in Janak Puri

A 34-year-old housemaid has been arrested from Bihar for allegedly poisoning and robbing elderly persons in the city, police said Wednesday.

The accused was identified as Reena, a resident of Begusarai district in Bihar, they said.

On December 11, police received a call regarding poisoning of an elderly couple at Janak Puri. After reaching the spot, the personnel shifted the unconscious couple to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, officials said.

During investigation, it was found that the couple had been given some unidentified substance by their recently-hired maid and that she was suspected to have ransacked the house and decamped with jewellery and cash, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Monika Bhardwaj said.

The victim Pushkar Nath Kaul said he had hired the maid for household work just a couple of days back, without much background check. There was absolutely no details about her except her fictitious name Pinki, Bhardwaj said.

While police were going through CCTV footage, the accused was seen going towards Sagarpur, the DCP added.

Thereafter, the police looked for the maid in Dabri, Sagarpur, Bindapur, Uttam Nagar, Sitapuri and Kali Basti areas as these are the places from where most maids come from to work in Janak Puri and Vikas Puri, Bhardwaj said.

Later, it was found that similar incidents of poisoning and looting were reported from Vikas Puri and Janak Puri earlier, she said.

The police received information about the suspect and raids were conducted at Begusarai district in Bihar from where the accused was picked up, she said.

During interrogation, Reena confessed to the charges of the current as well as four other previous cases, Bhardwaj said.

In all these cases, Reena used to work in the houses of senior citizens and after two to three days of starting work she would poison them and decamp with valuables, she said.

Some gold jewellery and Rs 17,000 in cash was recovered from her, the DCP said.