Delhi: Woman stabbed in face, shoulder by chain snatcher

A case of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon in committing robbery and common intention was registered against the two suspects at the Bhajanpura police station

A 35-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times in the face and near both shoulders by an as yet unidentified man because she resisted his attempt to snatch her gold chain near her home in West Ghonda near northeast Delhi’s Maujpur on Monday evening, police said. After injuring the woman, the suspect and his accomplice fled with the gold chain—that allegedly weighs around 10 grams—on a motorcycle, the police said.

The incident is latest in a series of snatching cases in which the victims suffered fatal or serious injuries besides losing their property. (HT Photo)

According to police, the woman, identified as Avantika Raghuvanshi, was walking towards her parental home around 5pm with her five-year-old son, Aaryan, when she was attacked. Her son is unhurt. The woman has been admitted to a private hospital in central Delhi where she is still undergoing treatment.

A case of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon in committing robbery and common intention was registered against the two suspects under sections 394, 326 and 34 of Indian Penal Code at the Bhajanpura police station, deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said.

The incident is latest in a series of snatching cases in which the victims suffered fatal or serious injuries besides losing their property. According to Delhi Police data, Delhi reported 5,024 snatching cases till July 15 this year -- 556 more than what was reported during the same period in 2021.

The police said that apart from activating their human intelligence network, the CCTV cameras installed around the scene of the crime were also being scanned to identify and nab the suspect. They are also trying to identify the rickshaw puller on whose cycle rickshaw the woman and her son had travelled to West Ghonda from the nearest Metro station, seconds before she was cornered, attacked and robbed of her gold chain.

Raghuvanshi lives with her parents in Gangotri Vihar near West Ghonda. Her husband, an engineer, works in Saudi Arabia.

On Monday around 5 pm, she returned from her in-laws’ home in a Metro train and took a rickshaw to reach her parents’ home in Gangotri Vihar. On the way, the rickshaw puller allegedly spoke to someone over the phone and gave the caller his current location. As the house of Raghuvanshi’s parents is in a narrow lane where the cycle rickshaw could not reach, she left the cycle rickshaw some distance away and started walking with her son, said a police officer aware of the case.

“As we were walking, a man came from behind and tried to snatch my gold chain. I held on to my chain. He asked me to part with the chain but I refused. He took out a knife and attacked my face. The knife caused a deep cut on my right cheek and also on the right shoulder. But as I did not lose my grip on the chain, he stabbed me in the back of my left shoulder. I panicked and lost my grip. He snatched my chain and I chased him. He mounted a bike on which his accomplice was waiting and both sped away,” said Raghuvanshi in her complaint that was converted into a first information report (FIR).

As the suspects fled, the injured woman who was bleeding from her face and shoulders raised an alarm. Hearing the commotion her brother, Satyaveer Singh, came out of the house and rushed her to a nearby hospital from where she was shifted to a private hospital in central Delhi. The family members told police that Raghuvanshi was emotionally attached to the gold chain because her husband had gifted it to her on her birthday.