Help steals ₹60 lakh from nonagenarian employer in Gurugram

A 34-year-old man, who worked as a house help for a 90-year-old woman in Gurugram, is on the run after he siphoned off ₹60 lakh from his employer’s bank accounts over a period of two years, police officers said on Friday.

Police said the man, originally from West Bengal, has been booked, and teams will be sent to the eastern state to look for him.

Giving details of the case, a senior officer said the nonagenarian woman lived with her 58-year-old daughter, who is mentally challenged, at their Sector 4 home. The woman’s husband died in June 2024, aged 98, while her son lives in the UK.

The officer said the house help was hired through an agency, and was working for the family since 2012.

The victim, speaking to HT over the phone, said the house help was leaving for his hometown on September 30, 2024, and she asked him to withdraw around ₹1.5 lakh from the bank for monthly household expenses.

“He gave me the cash but did not get the passbook updated. After around a fortnight, my driver — who was also on leave — returned, and I asked him to update the passbook, which is when I realised that instead of ₹1.5 lakh, the house help had withdrawn ₹2.1 lakh: an extra ₹60,000,” the woman said.

She then sought help from a neighbour, and they discovered that the house help, since 2022, had siphoned off around ₹20 lakh from her bank account, and another ₹40 lakh from her daughter’s bank account.

“He had made cash withdrawals as well as online transactions, using my mobile phone which he said he needed to call home. We all trusted him,” the 90-year-old said.

The woman submitted a police complaint on October 29, 2024, on the basis of which the economic offences wing (EOW) carried out an inquiry and filed a first information report under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 420 (cheating) at the Sector 9A police station on January 2 this year.

Kuldeep Singh, station house officer of the Sector-9A police station, said, “EOW officers will take action against the suspect soon.”