Chennai: Jilted by medico, man steals hospital laptops

CHENNAI: A 25-year-old economics graduate, who set himself the target of stealing laptops from medical colleges across the country as 'revenge' after his girlfriend, a medico, broke up with him, was nabbed in Chennai on Saturday.
A team of the Washermenpet police caught up with K Tamilselvan of Pulivalam in Thiruvarur district and seized 31 laptops worth ₹1 crore.Investigators believe he could have stolen more than 100 from colleges in places like Kannur in Kerala, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur since 2018. A court has sent him to jail.
On Friday, police said, Tamilselvan armed with an 'identity card' entered the men's hostel of Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital and found a room shared by second year students Ruthesh and Akshay opened.
Man developed habit of stealing while still in school
He walked out with two laptops. Based on a complaint from the students, police checked the CCTV footage where they found Tamilselvan entering the room and leaving in 15 minutes.
Police initially believed he was a student, but a check found he was not. A team headed by inspector A Yamuna nabbed him on Saturday when he was moving around the hostel. He had stolen a laptop from the same hostel on February 15, police found.
Tamilselvan told police his parents had died when he was a child in his native Tiruvarur and that he moved to Chennai with the help of relatives. His younger brother stayed on in Tiruvarur where he is currently doing an engineering course. Police said he developed the habit of stealing small items when he was in Class XI at a private school in Chennai's Mogappair and was expelled but continued to steal. He managed to complete his Class XII at a school in Madambakkam and left for Delhi where he completed BA Economics from a university.
It was in the national capital that he came in contact with a medical college student who, however, ditched him after coming to know about his past. He first targeted a college in Gujarat in 2018 and blew up the booty on a lavish lifestyle. He then targeted medical college hostels in many places including Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital.
He sold the laptops online for 20,000 and 30,000. He was arrested twice for stealing laptops in Kannur and Gujarat in 2018, police said.