CHENNAI: Mylapore police arrested a 49-year-old man for stealing jewellery, a laptop and a wristwatch from the car of an actor Varun (33) after opening the vehicle with a duplicate key. Varun had acted in a feature film and is the nephew of film producer and educationalist, Ishari Ganesh, police sources said.

Varun had visited Mylapore to attend a wedding and parked his car on the roadside. After the event, he returned to the vehicle and found that it had been opened with a duplicate key.

A gold chain, a laptop and an expensive wristwatch, together worth several lakhs of rupees, were missing, according to a complaint with the Mylapore police. Police perused CCTV footage from the area and zeroed in on Jalaluddin (49) of Washermanpet, arrested him and recovered some of the stolen valuables.

Probe revealed that Jalaluddin was a serial offender and had targeted several such cars using duplicate keys. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.