Muzaffarnagar (UP), Feb 14 (IANS): A 22-year-old student pursuing MBBS from Russia has been arrested along with his friend for allegedly stealing jewellery worth lakhs of rupees from a neighbour's house.

According to SP (city) Arpit Vijay Vargiya, the student Rohan Kumar came back home a month ago from Russia after completing the first year of his medical course.

His family had given him Rs 15 lakh for tuition and living expenses which he lost while gambling online.

To recover the money, Rohan along with friend Amit Kumar, a second year D-pharma student, hatched a plan to rob his next door neighbour's house.

"On February 10, the duo entered the house from the terrace at night when the owner, Laxmi Rani, who works as a teacher, was out and decamped with gold and silver jewellery," the SP said.

The victim filed a police complaint at Nagar Kotwali police station the next day. After examining the CCTV footage from the area, police identified the two accused.

When the police raided Rohan's home, he swallowed a gold chain while attempting to escape. However, he was nabbed and rushed to a hospital where the X-ray report confirmed the presence of jewellery in his stomach.

The stolen jewellery was also recovered from his home.

SHO Mahaveer Chauhan said, "Rohan is currently lodged in jail. We will wait for him to naturally expel the chain, otherwise we'll take him to the hospital for a surgery to extricate the same."