A 34-year-old bank employee, riding a scooty from her residence in Dwarka Sector 16 to her office in Sector 12, became a victim of daylight snatching when a man on a two-wheeler came from behind and fled with her bag.
Amrita Tolani stated in her complaint that around 9.50 a.m. on November 22, she slowed down her two-wheeler as she reached the traffic signal near a luxury hotel. A youth, who was following her from Sector 14, suddenly snatched her bag containing documents, phone and money, and sped away on his motorbike, jumping the signal.
Ms. Tolani was one of the six victims targetted by the snatchers between November 20 and 26 in and around Dwarka Sector 14. The Hindu accessed the six FIRs registered at Dwarka North police station and in all the cases the victims were threatened with sharp objects by one or two motorbike-borne men.
Speaking to The Hindu , Ms. Tolani’s husband Varun said she was considering changing the route to office after the incident. “The man had been following my wife from Sector 14. In the last one year that my wife has been taking this route, this is the first time that something like this has happened and that too in broad daylight,” he said, adding that the police have been very cooperative with them.
On November 20, a youth, Prashant Yadav, was with his friend near Dwarka Sector 14 metro station when two men threatened them with a sharp object and robbed them of their cell phones. The victim said there were no CCTV cameras in the area where the incident happened.
On November 23, 40-year-old Sombir, a resident of Kakrola, told the police that he was on his way home after a party at a friend’s place when near a park in Dwarka Sector 14 a man attacked him with a knife. Another man came from the front and the duo overpowered him and snatched his mobile phone.
2 incidents in 1 day
On November 24, two such incidents took place in a span of two hours and barely a few kms from each other.
In the first incident, the victim, Vikas Kumar, 36, a resident of Kakrola who works in the Air Force, said he was near a Government school in the area when a man came on a motorbike, snatched his phone and fled. In the second incident, 20-year-old Bharti Sharma, a call centre employee, told the police that around 10 p.m. on the Old Palam Road in Dwarka Sector 14, two men came on a motorbike, snatched her cell phone and fled.
Mohsin Khan, 32, a resident of Uttam Nagar, said in his complaint that on November 26 he was robbed of his mobile phone by two men on a motorcycle at Dwarka Mor. The incident took place around 2 a.m. when Mr. Khan was on his way home in an autorickshaw. The duo fled before he could note the bike’s registration number, he told the police.
In most cases, the victims said, the suspects were aged between 20 and 25.
While these incidents have triggered safety concerns among the residents of Dwarka Sector 14 and neighbouring areas, the Dwarka district doesn’t feature on the top the list of reported snatchings in the city as most of such crimes have been reported from East (112), North (103), Shahdara (94), Outer (88), and Central (87) districts, according to Delhi Police data between October 8 and November 11. A total of 1,018 cases of snatchings were reported in this period and 526 cases, including old ones were solved; 421 persons were arrested in these cases. Dwarka reported 61 cases of snatching in this period.
Police sources said that under ‘Operation Varchasva’, they have managed to control gangs involved in such crimes and the number of cases has, in fact, declined after the crackdown began in October.
When contacted, DCP (Dwarka) Shankar Choudhary refused to comment.
“The numbers indicate easier registration of FIRs and effective conversion of PCR calls into FIRs. We are dominating the streets and that shows in the number of arrests made and cases solved,” said Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal.
Commissioner of Police Rakesh Asthana had said on Wednesday that he would like to introduce a new law to tackle cases of snatchings in the city.
