Snatchers strike again: Woman falls from auto trying to fight off bikers in Delhi

A 26-year-old woman from Manipur was grievously injured after she fell out of a moving auto while trying to fight off while trying to resist a snatching bid in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar on Sunday night.

The woman skid and her face hit the road near the Moolchand flyover. She broke her teeth and received injuries on her face, limbs, and abdomen. She was admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre and later discharged.

Romil Baaniya, deputy commissioner of police (southeast), said, “We have registered a case of robbery and are looking for the snatchers.”

Read: Snatchers arrested in Delhi mostly first timers, school dropouts

The snatching took place close to the spot, where a similar incident took place on December 29, 2016, in which a 39-year-old woman from Darjeeling was injured and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital for over 15 days.

In the present case, the woman employed in the credit card division of a private bank was returning to her rented flat at Malviya Nagar in Delhi when the crime took place around 8pm. Her cousin, who didn’t want to be named, told Hindustan Times that around 7pm, she had gone to Maharani Bagh market to buy a mobile phone.

After buying the phone, the woman withdrew some money from an ATM and then hired an auto to reach home. Around 8pm, when the three-wheeler descended the Lajpat Nagar flyover, two men on a motorcycle started riding parallel to the auto. The woman was sitting on the left side. The woman’s friend said the pillion rider suddenly tried to snatch the woman’s bag.

“Since my friend was clutching on to the bag, she tried to fight them but they were speeding. The biker then gave a final tug with such a force that she fell out of the auto,” said the woman’s friend.

The bikers managed to flee with the bag that contained an iPhone, ATM cards, identity cards and a little over Rs 2,000 in cash. She, however, managed to retain her new phone that she used to call her father in Manipur despite bleeding profusely.

Read: In west Delhi, snatching bid goes wrong twice, two nabbed

Seeing her condition, the auto driver panicked and offered to drop her to Safdarjung Hospital. However, the driver was so nervous that he lost track and reached Munirka. The woman sought help from men in Munirka.

One of them called the police and the woman was rushed to AIIMS Trauma Center in a police van. Her friends have alleged that there was a delay of over five hours in the treatment and she was discharged only after preliminary medical aid.

“We returned to the hospital again on Monday afternoon when my cousin complained of severe pain,” the woman’s cousin said.