Domestic help steals ₹6.75 lakh from bank account of disability rights activists | Mumbai news

Mumbai: A domestic help has been arrested for allegedly withdrawing 6.75 lakh from a joint bank account belonging to disability rights activist and author, Malini Chib, and her mother and co-chairperson of ADAPT (Able Disable All People Together), Mithu Alur.

The police on Tuesday registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by Malini’s brother, Nikhil Chib, who had alleged that the domestic help had stolen the debit card linked to the bank account jointly held by his sister and mother.

The accused identified as Saloni Ekka was employed with the Chib family since October 2022 via a Santacruz-based agency. Ekka, a native of Gadchiroli, used to look after Malini, who suffers from cerebral palsy, full time.

According to the police, on January 22 the complainant’s father, while transferring salary to Ekka from the account noticed that their account had only 56,314.

He checked the statement of the bank and discovered that 6.75 lakh was withdrawn from the account. On contacting the bank, the family learnt that the amount was withdrawn on December 8 and 11 and from January 15 to 20.

The family then checked the building’s CCTV and spotted an unknown person entering the building on the same days when the money was withdrawn. Malini raised suspicion on the involvement of Ekka saying she might have overheard the PIN while Malini was speaking over the phone.

The Chib family approached the Colaba police and Ekka was brought to the police station. During the inquiry, Ekka admitted that she used to take the debit card from Malini’s purse and hand it over to her acquaintance Balkrishna Kumar. After withdrawing money, Ekka would place the card back in Malini’s purse.

“Ekka used to delete SMS and email alerts of the withdrawal of money received on my sister’s mobile phone,” Nikhil said.

“Ekka has been arrested under sections 381 (theft), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation) of the Information Technology (IT) Act. She was produced before a court that remanded her in seven days police custody. Her associate is still wanted in the case,” Vijay Hatiskar, senior inspector, said.

Meanwhile, Nikhil said, “My mother has been working for disabled persons for more than 50 years. My sister trusted Ekka very much and she took advantage of it. We have been helping poor people for years. We would have loved to help her if she had asked for money or any other help. But breaching someone’s trust like this, had disturbed my sister emotionally.”

In 2011, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had awarded Malini Chib the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the category Role Model.

Malini was also honoured with the first global Cerebral Palsy Day Award for ensuring rights and entitlements of persons with disability.

Her mother, Mithu Alur had started a special school for disabled girls when no school in the city was willing to admit Malini.

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