Bengaluru techie steals 50 laptops from company after tomato crop loss

Bengaluru: City police have arrested a 29-year-old man, who worked as a system administrator at a multimedia firm, for allegedly stealing about 50 company laptops worth nearly Rs 22 lakh, officials said.

According to police, he is said to have incurred losses to the tune of Rs 25 lakh from his unsuccessful tomato farming and cyber centre business, which allegedly drove him to steal the laptops from the company located at Whitefield here, where he was employed, to clear his debt.

They said as the in-charge of the private company's inventory, the suspect, identified as Murugesh M, a BCA graduate from Hosur in Tamil Nadu, had access to laptops.

Murugesh, who is said to have confessed stealing laptops over a period of time, has revealed that he sold them to a gadgets repair shop in Hosur, police sources said.

As he stopped attending to work suddenly from August 22, and on noticing about the missing laptops, company officials checked the CCTV footage of the area where the laptops were stored, and came to know about his alleged involvement.

On receiving a complaint from the company, police registered a case and began the investigation, and subsequently apprehended him from a cinema house in Hosur and brought him to Bengaluru, officials said.

Police had recovered five laptops from him at the time of the arrest, they said, adding, he confessed to selling 45 laptops after stealing.

"The estimated value of stolen laptops is said to be Rs 22 lakh, and they have been recovered," a Police official said.

He is currently in judicial custody, the sources added.