Varanasi, Jun 14 (IANS): The city police have booked an imposter for stealing a portable ventilator from Banaras Hindu University's (BHU) Trauma Centre by posing as a service engineer.

The university officials lodged a case in this connection after the theft came to light on Saturday.

Trauma Centre in-charge Prof S.K. Gupta said, "A portable ventilator of the hospital was lying defunct in yellow-red area of the campus due to technical snag. On June 8, a man met the nursing officer of the area claiming that he was a service engineer and had come to repair the ventilator. However, without reporting anything further, he left the campus with the machine."

Inspector Lanka, Ashwini Chaturvedi, said, "Police are trying to identify the fraudster with the help of CCTV footage of the Trauma Centre. As the theft took place in a high-security zone, the security personnel deployed there are also being interrogated."

The varsity officials came to know about the theft on Saturday morning when the news went viral on social media. They immediately lodged a case with Lanka police through varsity's proctorial board.

Proctorial board officers were also interrogating the Trauma Centre staff and the security personnel who were on duty at the time of theft.

The Inspector said, "Efforts have been intensified to nab the thief.