Delhi snatchers: Scarring life and memories
Police data says 6,932 people became victims of snatching — the second most common crime in Delhi — last year
NEW DELHI: Belvia, 5, does not remember when her mother last spoke to her. Three years ago, Belvia’s mother, Sharmila Rai, 42, fell victim to snatching — Delhi’s most common crime after motor vehicle thefts.
Sharmila lost her speech and the left side of her body was paralysed after that incident. She cannot walk on her own. Two days after Christmas in 2016, Sharmila, once a beautician by profession, and husband Rakesh Rai, were on their way to Connaught Place. They had reached Moolchand flyover in south Delhi when two bikers approached their auto-rickshaw and tried to flee with Sharmila’s handbag. Sharmila held on to her bag and tried to fend off the snatchers and in the process was dragged out of the auto.
“I saw the bikers flee with her bag. Sharmila had fallen unconscious. We took her to Institute of Brain & Spine (IBS) in Lajpat Nagar, where she was operated on for nearly five hours,” said Rakeshrai, a chef at India International Centre.
“It has been three years since. I have spent nearly ₹14 lakh, in the hope that she will completely recover someday. While Belvia has no idea what happened, my elder daughter Bhoomika, a class seven student, faintly remembers how her mother spent days in the hospital and her shaved head post-surgery. If not her movement, we at least want her speech to return completely,” Rakesh said.
Sharmila and Rakesh are among the many victims in the national capital whose lives have been scarred by incidents of snatching.
According to police data, 6,932 people became victims of snatching in Delhi last year. Police claim that this number is down from 8,231 in 2017 and 9,571 cases reported in 2016.
But Sampa Sengupta Ray, 44, a lawyer from CR Park says despite police’s claims of snatching cases coming down, such crimes force people to change their daily lives. She says she has now made it a habit of mostly travelling in DTC buses, instead of hiring auto rickshaws and she wears no jewellery.
On March 17, 2017, on her way to Delhi High Court in an auto for bar council elections, Ray was targeted by two bike-borne snatchers at Jangpura flyover. Trying not to let them flee with her bag, Ray too fell out of the moving auto-rickshaw and sustained grievous head injuries.
“I spent a month in the hospital and have been told to avoid lifting heavy objects. I suffered complications in my spine. But what was most painful is that those snatchers are yet to be caught. I still remember their faces and can identify them,” said Ray, who also practices as a lawyer in the Supreme Court.
“They never got CCTV footage of the incident. Even the crime branch approached me. but no one was ever caught,” Ray said.
A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said Ray’s case has been closed. “Investigations will again be taken up only if we get any new clues,” the officer said.
Ray says that now whenever she is travelling in an auto, her hands automatically grip her bag tightly. “I do not wear any jewellery. I sit in the middle of the auto and keep a watch on every approaching vehicle. But we can’t always be vigilant. There will be times when someone is a little careless and the police’s negligence will lead to another such incident. Anyone can be a victim,” she said.
On International Women’s Day this year (March 8), the video of 53-year-old Shobha Kanwar was widely shared on social media in which she could be seen being dragged by two bike-borne snatchers while trying to stop them from fleeing with her bag.
The incident took place in west Delhi’s Janakpuri where Kanwar, who runs a school in Najafgarh, had arrived to attend a meeting. It has been over six months, but Kanwar says the scars that her injuries have left behind keep reminding her of the “horror”.
“Nowadays the sight of two men on a bike wearing helmets, sends shivers down my spine. I am not being able to get out of the trauma. But staying indoors is also not a choice. I use a scooter. But off late, my family has been pestering me to start using a car as they believe two-wheeler makes me more vulnerable to such crimes,” she said.
Unlike Sharmila and Sampa, even though Kanwar believes she turned out to be lucky with the police probe, as both the snatchers — the pillion rider a woman — were arrested the same month, she says that her battle with the trauma she has been left with has just begun.
“From stepping out for grocery shopping to visiting my school, I always need to watch my back. It has changed the way we used to step out of our houses and has forced us to always be conscious of our surroundings. It has also affected my family. Whenever I am late in reaching home, my son keeps calling me. My husband would often offer to drop me to the office and pick me up,” the woman said.
But snatching incidents are not just a challenge to civilians. Delhi police too are having a tough time dealing with the menace. A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said many people do not report snatching. “Those who get FIRS registered, either are not able to identify the accused or do not turn up to identify them voluntarily,” the officer said.
Even probing a snatching case is challenging. “We get very few clues. Most of the suspects wear helmets, remove their bike’s number plate, use fake number plates or use stolen bikes,” he said.
The officer added that a large number of first-timers also make it difficult for us to identify them. “Also, many of these accused are juveniles and easily get away with even when nabbed,” he said.
The officer said that investigations in every case is taken seriously but after working for months on a snatching, even when they manage to make arrests, the suspects are easily bailed out or are acquitted because of lack of evidence against them.
Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik had told HT that there was a need for stricter laws against street crimes such as snatching – on the lines of Haryana – that would allow “harsher punishment” for such criminals.
He said, once booked [under a stricter law], it will be more difficult for snatchers to come out of jail. That will keep them out of circulation and by virtue of harsher punishment, a clear message of deterrence will go out to criminals, the commissioner said.
But contrary to this, a 61-yearold resident of east Delhi’s Krishna Kunj, who fell victim to snatching right outside her house in July this year, believes that its not only stricter laws but also effective police assistance that is needed.
A retired employee of a power corporation and wife of an ex-serviceman, the woman was dragged by two bike-borne snatchers as she resisted them from fleeing with her bag. She had just reached home after buying vegetables from a local market and was searching for her keys when the two men targeted her. CCTV footage of the incident was also widely shared n on social media showing the woman being dragged by the snatchers.
The woman had also alleged that the police dealing with her case not only registered a case of theft in an E-FIR but also misguided her by trying to make her change her statement.
Recent incidents also show that snatching has become rampant in New Delhi area, where the highest number of policemen and security agencies remain stationed round the clock.
On Friday morning, a man and his wife were injured after they fell off their scooter while escaping two armed men on a bike who had threatened them and robbed their jewellery near KG Marg in Connaught Place. The couple had also alleged that for four hours they kept trying to file an FIR but policemen at Barakhamba police station, Parliament street police station, and Tilak lane refused to file a complaint.
Last week, a 54-year-old wife of a Delhi police ASI, who works as a senior nursing consultant at Lok Nayak hospital, fell victim to snatching and sustained injuries on her knees, hands and face when two men on a bike tried to flee with her gold chain near Delhi Zoo.
›What is most painful is that those snatchers are yet to be caught. I still remember their faces... They (the police) never got CCTV footage of the incident. SAMPA SENGUPTA RAY, snatching victim