A primary teacher in an MCD school and his accomplice were arrested for laptop thefts in AC coaches of Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, police said on Tuesday.

Police said Bhattu Bheem Rao Patil, who teaches in a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school in Sangam Vihar and is a resident of Shaheen Bagh in south Delhi and his accomplice Kundan Singh Bisht, a resident of Faridabad, used to demand money from their victims for returning the items.

"The two were arrested on Saturday. Patil was leaving the New Delhi Railway station with a stolen laptop bag when a constable on duty grew suspicious, stopped him and identified him on the basis of CCTV footage of one of his thefts. Patil also identified his partner, who was later arrested from his residence," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Parwaiz Ahmed.

The two had stolen many laptops, including from a student of IIM Bangalore.

During interrogation, the two revealed that they asked the victim to deposit Rs 30,000 in their accounts for returning the stolen articles. "When the victim refused to do so, they threatened to damage laptops containing their personal, important data," Ahmed said, adding they used to find the victim's mobile numbers from their visiting cards in the laptop bag.

A complaint was registered against the two with the Government Railway Police at Meerut railway station and the police station at the New Delhi Railway Station on February 12.