A lawyer has been arrested for allegedly stealing law books and citations from Hyderabad High Court, police said today.

Police said that GG Venugopala Krishna admitted that he had been stealing law books, journals and citations from the court halls to establish a good looking office to impress clients.

From his house, police reportedly recovered 144 law books which were stolen by him during last one year from the various court halls of the high court.

The 49-year-old lawyer told police that since he was not getting clients, he resorted to the theft to display books and citations in his office.

“Since his practice was not up to the mark he thought of establishing a good office with sufficient books to attract the clients but he did not have money,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south zone) V Satyanarayana.

It was on 17 March that police received a complaint about some books and files missing from court hall number 13 of the high court of Judicature for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The judges and registrar general had taken a serious note of the incident.

A case was registered at Charminar police station and investigation was taken up.

Police identified the accused after screening the footage of the CCTV cameras installed in the court premises.

Krishna, a native of Kakinada town in Andhra Pradesh, was working as a legal advisor in Sirpur Kagaz Nagar Paper Mill in Adilabad district of Telangana but after the lockout in 2012, he shifted to Hyderabad with the family but was not getting clients.