Techie turned hospital thief due to Covid-19 bill burden, held in Delhi

Police said on Thursday they arrested a 31-year-old engineer-turned-thief from Pune, who—frustrated with an exorbitant bill for his Covid-19 treatment in 2021—decided to take revenge by stealing expensive equipment from hospitals in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi.

Despite repeated pleas for a concession on his bill of ₹20-25 lakh, denials left him accruing debt for the treatment, police said. They said the accused, Vikas Hagawane, stole laptops, iPads, iPods, mobiles, jewellery and other valuable items from national and global multispecialty hospitals, and was traced during one such theft at the oncology department of Apollo Hospital in Sarita Vihar on April 10.

Police said they analysed footage from over 400 CCTV cameras to trace the suspect. “We found that this person was staying at a hotel in Paharganj. Based on technical surveillance and manual intelligence, the accused was caught from the hotel,” deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Ravi Kumar Singh said.

Hagwane is a computer science engineer from a Pune institute, police said. They said he came to Delhi on April 8 to commit multiple burglaries and was arrested on Monday.

“We found he (previously) committed thefts at Manipal Hospital in Dwarka, Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj and Max Super Specialty Hospital in Noida. We recovered four expensive laptops, a mobile phone, branded sunglasses and an Apple iPod from his possession,” the DCP said.

Singh said the accused was in debt and he had been “harbouring resentment” against private hospitals since then. Police said he started stealing from hospitals in Pune and Mumbai, and then moved to Jaipur, Delhi, Noida and Gurugram.

An investigator said, “To evade detection, he deliberately avoided using SIM cards, instead operating a mobile phone connected only to hotel Wi-Fi. He would search prominent hospitals, map the layout of the buildings, and identify spots unattended by doctors. During peak working hours, he would pose as a visitor, enter vacant OPDs or staff rooms, and steal high-value items, such as laptops, mobile phones, cash, and accessories.”

Hagwane also forged a bill book to generate fake sales invoices. Before coming to Delhi, police said he stayed in Jaipur for three weeks where he targeted multiple hospitals. Police said they found details of six cases against him in Mumbai and Pune, and are approaching Jaipur Police to get more details.