Kandivli woman ‘cooked up’ robbery plaint to save jewellery for kids’ future

Mumbai: Three days after a Charkop housewife claimed eunuchs barged into her house, knocked her unconscious and fled with jewellery worth Rs 8 lakh, investigators have found it to be a cooked up story. Hetal Jethwa, the complainant, feared her family would sell her jewellery as they were going through a financial crisis. She wanted to pawn the jewellery in future for her kids’ careers.Police will now seek permission from a magistrate’s court to arrest her.
Jethwa, 30, lives in Charkop’s sector 7 with her husband, in-laws, a five-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. Her husband is a tailor and her father-in-law is employed at a restaurant. The family currently lives in a rented flat as their house is being redeveloped.
“Jethwa had seen eunuchs come to her society to beg from residents. She hit upon the idea of cooking up a robbery complaint so that her jewellery would remain safe. She hid the jewellery in a ‘pooja-ghar’ in the house where we eventually found it,” said senior inspector Ramchandra Gaikwad.
Jethwa approached the cops and said she was home alone on August 27 when two eunuchs knocked on the door. She claimed when she answered the door, they sprayed a chemical on her face which rendered her unconscious. The duo then made off with 29 tolas of gold jewellery.
“Right from the beginning, we suspected something amiss in Jethwa’s tale. Her medical examination showed no effects of any chemical spray. CCTV footage of her building did not show any eunuchs turning up that day. Neither the children playing in the society nor a milk deliveryman, who had visited Jethwa’s house minutes before the ‘robbery’, saw any eunuchs entering or leaving. Besides, Rs 2,000 in cash was lying in the house and ornaments she was wearing were untouched,” said an official. The police also found eunuchs would come to the society to beg only on Wednesdays whereas the ‘robbery’ was reported on a Saturday.
After sustained interrogation, Jethwa admitted her complaint was untrue. The police will now send a report about the investigation to court and file a ‘B summary’ to close the case.