NEW DELHI: A 31-year-old B.Tech graduate was arrested for allegedly stealing laptops and mobile phones from hospitals across Delhi/NCR, Jaipur, Mumbai and Pune, police said on Thursday.
According to the police, the accused had a personal grudge against doctors. While undergoing treatment for Covid-19, he did not get concession on medical bills due to which he went under a lot of debt.
The accused has been identified as Vikas, a resident of Pune in Maharashtra. He pursued B.Tech from Pune and was unemployed since lockdown. He was previously involved in six similar cases registered in Pune and Mumbai, they said.
On April 10, an employee of a private hospital in Sarita Vihar reported a burglary from a room of Oncology OPD. He stated that an unidentified person stole their laptop and mobile phone from the OPD room. During investigation, police analysed the CCTV footage of more than 400 cameras from the exit and entry routes.
Later, the accused was identified and found to have been staying at a hotel in Paharganj, the officer said.
Vikas had come to Delhi on April 8 with the intent to commit burglaries. He was nabbed from Paharganj on Monday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) Ravi Kumar Singh said.
During interrogation, he confessed to committing three more similar crimes post the Sarita Vihar incident at Dwarka, Vasant Kunj and Noida, the DCP said.
Four high-value laptops, one mobile phone, one Apple Airpod, one stolen high value goggles, Rs 6,100 and one bill book used to prepare forged bills to sell the stolen items were recovered from his possession, Singh said.
During interrogation, the accused disclosed that his criminal activities were motivated by a personal grudge against doctors. In 2021, while undergoing treatment for COVID-19, his request for a concession on medical bills was denied in a Pune hospital which had put him in a lot of debt, the DCP said.
Harbouring resentment since then, he began targeting hospitals and doctors’ offices across various cities as an act of deliberate retaliation, police said. He frequently travelled to metro cities such as Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune, staying in low-cost hotels to avoid suspicion and minimise expenses.
To evade detection, he deliberately avoided using SIM cards, instead operating a mobile phone connected solely to hotel Wi-Fi networks. He utilised an online search engine to identify prominent hospitals in the target city, mapping their layouts and identifying vulnerable zones such as unattended doctors’ chambers.
During peak working hours, he infiltrated hospital premises dressed as a visitor, entered vacant OPDs or staff rooms and stole high-value items such as laptops, mobile phones, cash, and accessories, police said. The accused had a forged bill book prepared in advance. He used it to generate fake sales invoices.
Accused unemployed since lockdown, say cops
According to police officials, the accused has been identified as Vikas, a resident of Pune in Maharashtra. He pursued B.Tech from Pune and was unemployed since Covid-19 lockdown. He was previously involved in six similar cases registered in Pune and Mumbai, the officials said.