CHENNAI: The Washermenpet police arrested a 25-year-old man on Saturday for allegedly stealing laptops from the men’s hostel of Stanley Medical College on Friday. The police recovered 31 laptops from him. According to the police, the accused was identified as K Tamizhselvan, an economics graduate from Thiruvallur. The police said that Tamizhselvan had allegedly stolen laptops from two people staying at the medical college’s hostel on Friday.
The theft took place when the rooms were empty in the afternoon. When the students returned to their rooms, they found the laptops missing. Based on their complaint, police arrested the accused after sifting through CCTV footage. The police searched his house as Semmenchery and found the laptops.
Upon investigation, it was found that Tamizhselvan targets medical college hostels across the country.
In his confession, Tamizhselvan said he had stolen laptops from students of various medical colleges. The places include Jamnagar, Kannur, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Bhuwaneshwar, and Jaipur. He has been arrested in Kerala and Gujarat.
Tamizhselvan said he has a fake ID card that allows him to go into medical college hostels without raising suspicions. He targets college hostels as the students in rooms keep their things unorganised and it is easy to steal things from the room, he said. And even if a laptop goes missing, it will take longer to notice it as the rooms are always cluttered. After stealing the laptops, he immediately sells them.
The accused was remanded in judicial custody on Saturday.