Bhubaneswar, Nov. 21: Police today arrested Babuli Pani, 20, who lives in a slum near Kalpana Square, on charge of stealing laptops.

The cops have seized six laptops, three LCD monitors, two digital cameras and gold ornaments weighing around 20 grams from the accused.

Pani was arrested after he had given a mobile phone for repair in a shop, from whose owner he had stolen the set a fortnight ago. “The mobile owner identified his phone and informed the police. Subsequently, we seized some laptops and other articles from him,” said a senior police official.

Pani is involved in a number of theft and burglary cases in the Lakshmisagar and Lingaraj areas. Police investigation revealed that Pani used to target hostels in Lakshmisagar to steal the laptops.

The theft of laptops in the city has become a major concern for students staying in hostels. Students had also raised the issue in several police-student interactions organised by the police.

On October 15, the police had arrested two youths and seized 18 laptops from them. The accused had been identified as Abhitesh Naik, 22, an engineering graduate, and Manoj Kumar Khatua, 27. The two were involved in several laptop theft cases in the Saheed Nagar, Khandagiri, Kharavela Nagar and Airfield police station areas.

The police said that often insiders were involved in the laptop theft cases. “In a number of cases related to laptop theft, we have found insiders committing the crime during early morning or late evening, taking advantage of the students’ absence,” said a police official.

On the other hand, students alleged that often, the cops were reluctant to take laptop theft complaints. “Whenever you visit a police station to lodge complaint of laptop theft, they would ask you unnecessary questions, and at times, they would even tell you that the area of crime did not fall under their jurisdiction,” said engineering student Rohit Das.