Bengaluru, Mar 23 (DHNS): A man who stole lingerie and roamed about a women’s hostel was arrested on Wednesday. Police suspect he is mentally unsound.

Abu Talim (35), a native of Kishanganj in Bihar, was a cleaner at the Bangalore Turf Club for 10 years. He is married, and his wife and two children live in Bihar, police said.

Talim would sneak into the Maharani’s College hostel by scaling the wall attached to BTC. He would then strip, leave his clothes on the wall and collect lingerie hung out to dry. Wearing the stolen garments, he would roam about the premises, police said.

Students grew suspicious when their lingerie began vanishing regularly from the clothesline. They kept awake and found a man sneaking in after midnight. When they raised an alarm, he fled. This happened several times.

Talim would disappear into the darkness the moment he heard a voice, police said. The hostel authorities then told the security guard to keep an eye out, but the thefts continued.

In February, Talim was again at the hostel, dressed in nothing but stolen lingerie.

A student called up the security guard, who caught him, hit him with a lathi and tried to catch him. Talim escaped by scaling the wall. His visits, however, stopped.

Earlier, in September 2016, the college authorities had approached the High Grounds police and lodged a complaint.

Police say a special team had got cracking on the case then. “From December 2016, Talim again started sneaking in. In February this year, the college authorities handed over CCTV?footage to the police,” an officer said. “We kept a tight vigil at the entry and exit points of the hostel to see if he was coming for a recce. We gathered he was coming from the wall attached to BTC,” said Chandragupta, DCP (Central). Police then started looking closely at people working at BTC. “The staff said Talim would venture out late at night,” he said.

Talim’s job was to clean horses and stables. He was an introvert and did not mingle with his colleagues. Even when he went out, he kept to himself. Police in plain clothes tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he remained mum. “His behaviour was abnormal,” Chandragupta told DH.

A childhood fetish

Talim has never harmed anyone. During interrogation, he said he was not aware why he used to venture out at night looking for women’s undergarments. His brother Nawad Hussain, also a cleaner at BTC since 1991, said Talim used to wear womens’ undergarments even as a child. “Even at out native place, he would roam about wearing garments stolen from neighbours. At times, he would wear his wife’s undergarments and sleep. He gains pleasure from such acts,” he said.