Sophia Bijla, daughter-in-law of the couple and a budding actress said, “When we first visited the police station to get track of the development in the investigations, Nilam, the domestic help, confessed that she had been involved in the robbery planning. After some time, however, she changed her statement and claimed that she was not involved in the robbery in any way.”

The Acme Complex residence of Sanjay Bijla, a businessman, had been robbed while he and his wife, Sophia were out for work on Saturday night. Only Jyoti Bijla (67), Sanjay’s mother, her ailing husband Ramchandra (69), Nilam and one male nurse were present in the house at that time.

It was then that the three robbers, posing as delivery men from the nearby medical stores, which delivered medicines to Ramchandra, entered the house. They tied Jyoti, Nilam and the male nurse after brandishing guns, and decamped with cash, jewellery and mobile phones worth Rs 9.93 lakhs.

Sophia said, “We had our suspicion on Nilam as she had joined work just four months ago and knew everything about where the valuables and cash were kept in the house. We told the police about her, after which she was taken in for questioning as we suspected that she could be the one who might have tipped off the robbers about the valuables inside the house and the timings when there would be no one to resist a robbery attempt.”

When asked about how the Bijla family employed her and whether details about her were registered with the local police, Sophia said, “Nilam had been referred to us by another maid in the locality. We do not know much about her family, except that she comes from Raigad and that she has a sister who stays nearby. We did not register her details with the local police.”