Vijayawada: Prakasam district police arrested a notorious thief who was targeting passengers at the Ongole RTC bus stand for the past two years. The accused, identified as Visa Ramesh Babu, a 51-year-old resident of Kandukuru town, was arrested and 10 laptops were recovered from his possession.According to the police, Ramesh Babu devised a clever modus operandi. Posing as a regular passenger, he used to board buses and observed travellers who stepped off momentarily for food or water, leaving their bags unattended on the seats. He would then swap the unattended bags with his empty one and escape with the valuables. This tactic enabled him to steal several bags without raising immediate suspicion.One such incident occurred on July 5 at the Ongole RTC bus stand. A passenger, P Sudhakar, who was travelling from Vijayawada to Tirupati, kept his bag in the bus and stepped out to fetch drinking water. In that brief window, Ramesh Babu allegedly stole Sudhakar’s bag containing Rs 5,000 in cash and valuable documents.Following Sudhakar’s complaint, Ongole One Town CI Y Nagaraju registered a case and launched an investigation using CCTV footage from the bus stand. Through technical surveillance, police identified the accused and traced him to Bhagya Nagar in Ongole.During the arrest, police recovered 10 laptops linked to various theft cases, collectively valued at Rs 2.5 lakh. Police officials are verifying the origin of each recovered laptop and are in the process of contacting its rightful owners. Ramesh Babu is believed to be involved in multiple thefts over the past two years, and further investigation is underway to determine the full extent of his criminal activities.
