The Special Squad of the Commissionerate Police on Wednesday arrested two youths, including a BTech student, for their alleged role in looting laptops from city hostels.
The police seized 18 numbers of laptop from their possession worth more than Rs6 lakh.
The accused were identified as Abhitesh Nayak alias Milu (22) of Cuttack district presently staying at Rajarani Colony near Rabi Talkies under the Badagada police limits and Manoj Kumar Khatua (27) of Pathuripada under the Banki police limits in Cuttack district.
Twin City Commissioner of Police (CP) Dr RP Sharma said that acting on a tip-off, the Special Squad and the Kharavel Nagar police conducted raids in the city two days ago and nabbed the youths.
Abhitesh, a BTech graduate from a city-based engineering college, was the mastermind of the laptop loot cases. He used to loot these gadgets in early morning when hostel inmates were out of their rooms to attend classes, and in evening hours when the inmates go out to markets.
Out of the seized items, six were HP laptops, four Dell, two lenovo, two Samsung, one Sony, two Compaq and one IBM. The police recovered 14 laptops from Abhitesh while the rest were seized from Manoj.
Both accused were involved in several cases registered at the Kharavel Nagar, Saheed Nagar, Khandagiri, Infocity and Airfield police stations.
“Investigation is on to verify other antecedents of the accused,” Dr Sharma said.