From the figures available with the Chandigarh, Panch-kula and Mohali police, it appears that the trend has recently picked up. The first such theft was reported from Fastrack Computing Limited in Sector 20, Chandigarh, in December last year. Around 52 laptops and accessories worth lakhs were stolen from the shop on the intervening night of December 12 and 13.

Iqbal Singh, one of the directors of Fastrack Computing Limited, has given an entire list of the make, serial numbers and bill numbers of the stolen laptops to the Crime Branch of UT Police, but the latter has not been able to achieve any breakthrough in the case.

“I gave the police all details, but they could not trace a single stolen laptop yet. They might have thought that I exaggerated the figures,” he told Newsline.

According to information collected from three police agencies of Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula, it’s not a handiwork of any petty burglar, but some well-organised gangs.