Khar police, who are investigating the case, said the actress employed a young girl on November 24 without bothering to checking her antecedents, and the girl disappeared on Thursday with the jewellery. However, Chatterji has put the value of the jewellery at much less than Rs 18 lakh.

Speaking to Express Newsline, Chatterji admitted the domestic servant she had employed had turned out to be a professional thief, and much to her surprise, had robbed her within a very sport span of time.

The actress said that after she left her Nibhana Building, Nargis Dutt Road residence on Thursday morning, her daughter Payal, the newly-appointed maid and a cook, Mary, were at home. At thattime, the maid sought the permission of Payal to go down, saying her brother had come to meet her.

``My daughter asked the servant to call her brother upstairs, instead of going down to meet him. A little later, she said she wanted to go down for only 10 minutes and left. She never returned,'' Chatterji recalled.

Inspector Vilas Pawar attached to Khar police said the girl must have laid her hands on the jewellery much before she asked for permission to go down. She was only looking for an opportunity to escape with the booty, Pawar said.

Investigating officer sub-inspector Datta Patil informed the girl had given ger name as Sangeeta, which could be fictitious to mislead investigations. The only information available so far about the girl is that she is a Maharashtrian, Patil revealed.

A few suspects have been picked up from Pali Hill in the last two days in connection with the theft, and a dragnet has been spread to track the accused, sources added.

A senior police officer pointed out that suchincidents are common in plush localities, where domestic servants are employed without verifying their antecedents. Often police are clueless about the culprits, and in most cases their identity remains a mystery.