LUCKNOW, July 26 -- For nearly seven years, three young domestic workers lived and worked in the home of a wholesale grocery merchant in Hardoi, enjoying the family's trust and unrestricted access to the household. Police said that the same trust became the key to one of the district's biggest residential cash thefts in recent years.

Nine days after the merchant and his wife were allegedly drugged and bags of cash stolen from their home, Hardoi police on Saturday claimed to have cracked the case, arresting 16 people and recovering Rs.1.28 crore in cash. Investigators said the conspiracy stretched from Hardoi to Lucknow and involved domestic workers, drivers, daily wage labourers and history-sheeters.

According to police, the plot was ma...