Delhi: Man snatches woman’s earrings, swallows them

The suspect, Mohammad Nasir, snatched the earrings from the woman’s ears outside her home in north-east Delhi’s Usmanpur while she was returning from a funeral.

A man on a motorcycle allegedly swallowed the two gold earrings he snatched in a bid to destroy evidence after he was caught by a 50-year-old woman and her two daughters-in-law in northeast Delhi’s New Usmanpur on Thursday night, the Delhi Police said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital. The snatched earrings were yet to be retrieved. (HT Photo)

The suspect, later identified by the police as Mohammad Nasir, had snatched the earrings from the woman’s ears outside her home while she was returning from a funeral. Joy Tirkey, deputy commissioner of police (northeast), said that Nasir, 34, was admitted to a hospital and being given medicines to make him excrete the swallowed earrings. “He is a bad character with a criminal history,” said the DCP.

The woman, Phoolan Devi, is a homemaker and lives with her two sons and their families in Usmanpur. The incident happened around 10pm on Thursday. Devi told police that she was outside her house when a man on a motorcycle stopped near her. “When I asked him why he had stopped, he approached me and grabbed both my ears and pulled my earrings,” Devi told the police in her statement.

When Devi tried to fight him, Nasir allegedly snatched her handbag as well, which contained some cash and identification cards.

Devi said that her two daughters-in-law were around and they rushed to her help. “We managed to fight back and dragged him off his motorcycle and called the public. However, he quickly popped both the earrings in his mouth and began chewing them before swallowing them,” she said.

Moments later, her son and the public allegedly punched the suspect in a bid to retrieve the earrings, but to no avail.

The police were subsequently called and the suspect was taken to a hospital, while Devi was treated for the injuries she sustained on her ears at Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital. Devi was then discharged, police said.

The snatched earrings were yet to be retrieved until Saturday. Police said that the suspect was under observation, but there was no apparent danger to his life on account of the swallowing.