Girl who fought snatchers says her only fear was missing online classes
JALANDHAR: The 15-year-old Jalandhar girl, who bravely fought off two motorcycle-borne snatchers when they tried to flee with her smartphone recently, says fear was the last thing on her mind, rather she was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to attend her online classes if they succeeded.
“My father is a daily wager. He earns around ₹300 a day and our family is facing difficult times due the Covid-19 pandemic. Still, he bought the smartphone on instalments two months ago so that I could attend my online classes,” says Kusum Kumari, a resident of Fatehpuri Mohalla in Jalandhar. “My 18-year-old brother had to drop out of school due to our financial condition.
He now works as a driver. But my father wants me to study and I want to make him proud by becoming an IAS officer one day,” she says.
“My father didn’t want technology to come in the way of my education and I knew he wouldn’t be able to afford another phone so my studies would get affected if the snatchers had their way. Those were the thoughts racing in my mind as I desperately fought the snatchers,” says the teenager.
‘Learning taekwondo helped’
Kusum suffered a wrist injury in the incident at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Nagar near the Jalandharkapurthala road after the pillion rider on the motorcycle, Avinash Kumar, 23, snatched her phone when she was returning home from tuition on Sunday afternoon. She ran behind them and didn’t give up even when she was attacked with a knife.
A bystander overpowered the pillion rider. “I’ve been learning taekwondo for three months so that helped,” she says. While Avinash was arrested, absconding motorcycle driver Vinod Kumar, 22, of Railway Quarters was also booked.