Eight engineering students held for theft in college lab

MUMBAI: Eight students from the Vidya Prasak Mandal Polytechnic in Thane were arrested by the Thane Town police for allegedly stealing LCD screens, CPUs, and other hardware from the college’s computer laboratory.

Mahesh Surve, 21, a third-year student, was caught by a security guard at 6.45 pm on Wednesday when he was allegedly trying to leave the premises with two LCDs and a scanner in a bag.

Bharat More was on his routine rounds when he noticed Surve enter the college with a small bag. Later, he said, he saw Surve leaving by the back door with a big bag. When More asked him what was in the bag, Surve kept quiet. So More took him and the bag to the chemical lab on the ground-floor and opened it. Finding two LCD screens and a scanner inside, he informed the college authorities.

The authorities checked and found that several other items were missing from the laboratory. Finally, Surve was handed over to the Thane Town police. On questioning, the police learnt that seven other students from the college were involved in the thefts.

The other arrested students are Siddesh Rawat, 19, Shrikant Humnabadkar, 21, Sunil Bagul, 21, Pushkar, 19, Sandesh Sawant, 21, Rahul Sanas, 20, and Rohit Telgu, 21. The police have seized 11 LCDs, one scanner, two mouses, one keyboard, and three CPUs from them.

Sub-inspector PM Mujawar said the students had got a duplicate key of the computer lab made, which they used to sneak inside and steal equipment. The eight students have been remanded in police custody till Friday.

s_divyesh@dnaindia.net