Robbers run riot on city streets
Bike-borne snatchers are getting bolder. On Sunday, two women were injured while trying to fend off snatchers in south and east Delhi areas within six hours. The two incidents were among the 35 snatching calls that were received by the city police on Sunday itself.
Delhi Police statistics show that 3,717 snatching cases were reported till May 31. It means that on an average, 25 snatching cases are reported every day, at least one every hour.
The rate of snatchings has, however, gone down this year compared to the same period last year when at least 29 snatchings were reported every day in Delhi. A total of 4,255 snatching cases were registered till May 31, 2016.
Though the statistics show the snatchings have dropped, the fact that bike-borne snatchers are turning violent, going to the extent of harming their victims is alarming to the police.
On Sunday around 8 pm, a 26-year-old woman was hurt when she fell out of an auto while fighting off bike-borne snatchers near Moolchand flyover.
Barely six hours ago, another woman was wounded in her hand when snatchers on bikes tried to forcibly pull off her bracelet (kada) and fired bullets in air to scare her while she was travelling in an auto near Delhi Police Headquarters.
Similar crimes involving bikeborne snatchers have happened in the past few months. In at least three other previous such crimes, women or their children have been left injured after they either fell off running auto-rickshaws or were dragged with the bikers. The wife of a senior Navy officer is injured when she resists snatching by bike-borne men on Tughlaq Road. The crime takes place near the residence of Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.