2 BTech students among 3 held in campus laptop heist

Hyderabad: The Gachibowli police cracked the burglary at the CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS) on the University of Hyderabad campus and recovered all 60 laptops stolen in the early hours on Feb 9. Police arrested three accused, including two BTech students of the institute and their associate.The accused were identified as Regula Chandra Shekar, 30, an unemployed man, and two 19-year-old second-year BTech Computer Science students. Police said the trio stayed at the same private hostel in Gowlidoddi and were arrested there on Sunday."We recovered all 60 laptops, three mobile phones and two cars used in the offence," Gachibowli inspector K Balaraju said.According to police, Chandra Shekar learnt about the computer lab from the two students, hatched a plan and executed the theft with their assistance. The accused were familiar with campus security and entered the lab through a rear window between 3am and 4am, cut the CCTV cable inside and escaped with laptops worth about Rs 12 lakh in a car parked behind the building.They later changed the car's number plate to hoodwink the police. However, police teams analysed CCTV footage from the campus and surrounding areas to identify and track the suspects.The accused were produced before a court on Monday and remanded to judicial custody there.