Seeking medical aid, two men snatch gold chain of elderly woman in Ashok Nagar

NEWDELHI: Posing as accident victims, two men sought first aid from a 60-year-old woman and then pretended to touch her feet before allegedly snatching her gold chain outside her relative’s home in north-east Delhi’s Ashok Nagar on Saturday.

The woman, who identified herself by her first name, Prakashi, said the snatchers pushed her to the ground and she suffered a bruise to her neck.

Acting on a tip, the police arrested the two suspects hours later from Khajuri Khas, deputy commissioner of police (northeast), , Ved Prakash Surya, said.

“We recovered five gold chains including the one allegedly snatched from the elderly woman in Ashok Nagar. The men were also found to be carrying a pistol and three bullets,” DCP Surya added.

The police identified the arrested men as Nazim and Akram(single names). The DCP said the suspects were notorious robbers who have been active for the last three years.

Prakashi, a widow, is a homemaker and lives with her children in Ashok Nagar. The alleged incident happened when she was visiting her cousin in the same neighbourhood. “It was around 2.30 pm when my cousin and I were sitting outside the house when two men parked their motorcycle nearby and approached us,” Prakashi said.

“They said they had just met with an accident. One of them showed me an injured finger and requested me to fetch some turmeric to apply on it. Over the next few minutes, I applied turmeric on his wounds, offered him water and made the two men sit with us,” she added.

During the 30 minutes that the men sat there, they spoke over the phone in a language that Prakashi did not understand. “All through, I kept comforting the men and kept enquiring if they felt any better,” she said.

The elderly woman added that when it was time for the men to leave, one of them brought their motorcycle closer, which later turned out to be an act to facilitate a quick escape. “The man I had just treated said he wanted to thank me by touching my feet. But the moment he bent down, he pushed me to the ground and snatched my gold chain. The snatchers then escaped on their motorcycle,” Prakashi said.

The deputy commissioner of police said the questioning of the suspects revealed that the injury shown by one of them was an old one. They had passed it off as a result of a fresh accident to pull off the alleged snatching.

Suffering from poor eyesight, Prakashi said she could not register the appearance of the men properly, but her cousin recalled their faces. Later, the cousin identified the suspects at an identification parade.

The DCP said that a case of robbery was subsequently registered at Jyoti Nagar police station.