Bhubaneswar: Police on Thursday arrested a 30-year-old youth for allegedly committing a series of burglaries at Infocity and Chandrasekharpur in the past four months and recovered stolen property worth more than Rs 70 lakh from him.

The recovered articles included gold ornaments weighing 778 grams, silver ornaments weighing 800 grams, 26 laptops, 43 mobiles, 27 watches, 59 saris, trolley bags and other home appliances.

The police said the accused, Sanjay Nishank, who is also BBA, started committing burglary after he had been fired from his job of sales executive in a cellular company five months ago. "He used to target empty houses and commit burglary, mostly during the day hours. He used to wear a helmet and break into the houses. So far, we have found his involvement in 12 burglary cases at Infocity and Chandrasekharpur," said deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo.

Probe revealed the accused of having a bizarre habit of stealing innerwear from houses. "The accused has not disposed of the stolen articles in the fear of getting caught. He stocked the stolen items at his rented home. We have also recovered shades, music systems, pen drives and a guitar," said a police officer.

The accused said he had a plan to sell the stolen articles through classified websites. "The accused used to target first and second floors of houses and drop sanitary napkins on the staircases," he said.

Nishank's helmet helped the police nab him. "All the CCTV footages showed the accused of wearing the helmet of a particular brand, while one letter of the brand was missing. The accused had also taken a bag containing a mobile phone, which provided us its location. Later, we searched the helmet with the missing letter and nabbed him," said Sahoo.

Port worker hurt

A contractual worker was injured while handling cargo at Paradip port. He slipped from a crane and suffered injuries. A. Alam, 35, is undergoing treatment at the Port Trust Hospital where his condition is said to be stable.