Bike-borne snatchers attack woman with blade in Saket

NEW DELHI: A 43-year-old woman was attacked with a blade when she resisted a snatching bid on Press Enclave road in Saket in south Delhi on Monday evening.

Police are trying to track the bike-borne snatchers, who fled with the woman’s bag.

The incident took place around 4.30 pm when the woman, Shalini Garg, was travelling in an autorickshaw with her son Ashish from her house in Sangam Vihar to a hospital in Saket to visit a relative who is under treatment.

According to the police, when the auto rickshaw reached a shopping mall in Saket, two men approached it from the right on a bike and the pillion rider tried to snatch Garg’s bag.

“My mother had kept the bag under a shawl she had draped. The moment she saw the man snatching her purse, she held it and pulled it away from the man. Due to the tussle, as the man riding the bike feared losing balance, the man riding pillion took out a blade and slashed my mother’s right hand,” said Ashish, the woman’s son.

Ashish said since his mother’s hand started to bleed, she let go the purse and the bikers sped away towards the shopping mall.

“We tried to chase them but since my mother’s hand was bleeding profusely, we went to a hospital to get her treated first. We called up the police and reported the matter,” he said.

Police registered a case of theft and assault at the Saket police station. Deputy commissioner of police (south) Vijay Kumar said CCTV footages were being checked to identify the accused. Ashish said her mother is a housewife and his father runs a cab service.

In 2018, Delhi reported about 20 incidents of snatching every day. Till November 30, the total number of snatching incidents was 6,366.

In a number of incidents, snatching attempts had turned fatal for the victims. In February this year, a 25-year-old man was stabbed to death by four men who attempted to snatch his phone near Pragati Maidan.