Mumbai woman books cleaning service on app for Diwali prep, robbed of Rs 4 lakh gold

The woman had booked a home cleaning service from an app. (Representational)

A 55-year-old woman from Mumbai was robbed of gold amounting to Rs 4 lakh after she hired a cleaning team via the No Broker app on October 21 for a routine festive cleaning. Lina Mhatre’s preparations took a dark turn when she discovered her gold ornaments were missing from her cupboard shortly after the cleaners left her residence.

Mhatre, a resident of Rishikesh Society in Dahisar East, reported the theft to the MHB police station, leading to the arrest of one of the suspected culprits.

Police confirmed that 27-year-old Arbaz Khan, along with two other suspects—Santosh Omprakash Yadav and Sufiyan Nazeer Ahmad Soudar—were identified through CCTV footage of the building, Free Press Journal reported.

While Khan remains in custody under interrogation, authorities are investigating his background to determine if he has prior convictions and whether No Broker conducted any background checks on the workers before they were hired.

The app has since blocked the IDs of these individuals, but under the regulations, all service employees, not just cleaning staff, should undergo police verification, officials told FPJ.

Despite a booming market for cleaning and maintenance apps, there is a concerning lack of oversight on background verification across the industry. These platforms commonly advertise trustworthiness and professionalism; however, many fail to provide concrete assurances of background checks.

When asked, some companies claim they conduct verifications, but evidence to support these assertions is often scant or absent.

With Diwali approaching, there is a significant rise of orders for home cleaning and other services in the burgeoning app-based service industry.