House help drugs ex-min, family; flees with valuables

Ludhiana: Hired just three months back, a domestic help drugged former SAD minister Jagdish Singh Garcha and his family and decamped with cash, jewellery and other valuables late on Sunday night. Labourers, who were engaged for construction work in the house, found the main gate open and the house ransacked on Monday morning.
Garcha (88), his wife Daljit Kaur (87), sister Sukhdev Kaur (78) and domestic help Renu were found unconscious in the house located in Maharaja Ranjit Singh Nagar on Pakhowal road.The accused had given them food laced with sedatives on Sunday night and thereafter executed the crime. Garcha’s son Bobby and his wife had gone to Delhi who were informed about the incident on Monday morning.
Senior BJP leader Jagmohan Sharma, who is a neighbour of the Garcha family, informed the police.
Sharma said, “Jagdish Garcha’s driver had come to me in the morning and informed me about the incident. I called up police officials, but the calls were not responded to. After waiting for the cops for more than an hours, we rushed them to a hospital in private cars.”
Police commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the family had hired a domestic help, hailing from Nepal, three months back without any police verification. The family did not have any ID or picture of the accused. The police are checking CCTV cameras installed in the locality to trace the accused.”
Earlier on September 12, a domestic help from Nepal and her two unidentified accomplices had robbed her employer’s house in Phase-II of Urban Estate, Focal Point. The accused had given milk laced with sedatives to the employer couple and then executed the crime.
Loots executed by house helpers remain unsolved
Several incidents have been reported in the city in which domestic helpers, hired without police verification, carried out loot in the houses after drugging family members. However, the city police have not been able to solve the cases. In most of the cases, the domestic helpers are from Nepal. The city police had said that they never got cooperation from the Nepal government and its police in tracing the accused.
Verification of helpers
Ludhiana police have made the police verification of tenants and helpers mandatory under Section 144 of CrPC. The violators are also booked under 188 (disobedience to orders duly promulgated by public servant) of IPC. However, these FIRs are mostly lodged against those who don’t get verification of their tenants done.