NEW DELHI: Indian police have detained a man who stole 120 TV sets from hotels over four months, officials said Wednesday.

Vasudev Nanaiah booked into budget hotels in states across southern India with oversized bags to put the televisions in when he left.

If the room television did not fit his bag, the 34-year-old Nanaiah would go out to a local market to buy a bigger suitcase, police alleged.

Hotel staff never suspected him as he was very well behaved. Nanaiah also paid a small advance sum and told staff he would be staying for several days but generally left early, Chetan Singh Rathor, deputy commissioner of Bangalore police told AFP.

"We arrested him earlier this month when he was trying to sell TV sets to a shopkeeper, who alerted the police," he added.

The police say that they recovered around 20 stolen TVs and found that he had left about two dozen cases in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states believed to have been used in the theft of about 100 other TVs over the past four months.

Nanaiah told officials that he stole TVs because it was "relatively low risk and easy", according to police.

"He said that his recent thefts went to fund his lawyer and legal fees for previous TV theft charges in different courts,"Rathor said.—AFP