CHENNAI: A 39-year-old woman, who allegedly disguised herself as a doctor to steal jewellery and valuables from the women's hostel of Government Stanley Medical College, was arrested on Tuesday.

The hostel is located inside the medical college campus. For the past few days, students had been complaining about continuous theft of mobile phones and valuables from their rooms and had raised complaints with the hostel management.

Dr Raseena (31), a second-year postgraduate student in Paediatrics, removed her gold jewellery weighing around two sovereigns and kept it in her hostel room before going to sleep.

According to the police, a woman entered the room, stole the jewellery, and walked out of the hostel in a hurry. Though she was wearing a doctor's coat, her behaviour aroused suspicion among the hostel staff, who stopped her.

During questioning, the woman gave contradictory replies. The staff then detained her and handed her over to the Stanley Government Hospital police station.

During interrogation, the police found that she had stolen Raseena's gold jewellery and was trying to escape from the campus. The woman was identified as V Swetha (39) of Lakshmi Nagar in East Tambaram.

Further inquiry revealed that Swetha had been entering the hostel for several days in the guise of a doctor and that she was a habitual offender with six theft cases pending. The police registered a case and arrested Swetha.