New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) A 31-year-old BTech graduate, who allegedly bore a personal grudge against the medical fraternity after falling into debt owing to his Covid-19 treatment, has been arrested for a series of high-value thefts across hospitals in Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, Mumbai and Pune, police said on Thursday.

Vikas, a computer science graduate from MIT Pune, told police that his request for a concession on medical bills during the pandemic in 2021 was turned down by a Pune hospital, which led to severe financial distress, officials said.

Since then, he reportedly harboured a grudge against the medical fraternity and began stealing expensive devices from hospitals as an act of calculated retaliation, a senior police officer said.

Vikas has confessed to targeting the Manipal Hospital in Dwarka, Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, and the Max Super Specialty Hospital in Noida, the officer said.

“He was arrested from a hotel in Paharganj after a complaint was lodged at the Apollo Hospital in Sarita Vihar, where a laptop and mobile phone were stolen from the oncology OPD on April 10,” DCP (South-East) Ravi Kumar Singh said in a statement.

Police tracked the accused using extensive CCTV camera footage and surveillance, the DCP said.

Four laptops, one mobile phone, an AirPod, a pair of expensive goggles, Rs 6,100 in cash, and a forged bill book used to create fake invoices for selling stolen items were recovered from his possession, the officer said.

Explaining the accused’s modus operandi, the DCP said Vikas searched for prominent hospitals online, scanned the vulnerable areas such as vacant OPDs and doctors’ chambers, and THEN executed the thefts posing as a visitor.

He avoided using SIM cards, relying instead on Wi-Fi for connectivity to evade tracking. Prior to arriving in Delhi on April 8, he spent 21 days in Jaipur committing similar thefts, the officer said.

The accused is also linked to six previous theft cases in Pune and Mumbai, he added. PTI SSJ ARI