Three injured as auto-rickshaw flips during snatching bid in south Delhi

A 41-year-old woman fractured her collarbone, and her 48-year-old friend and the driver of the auto-rickshaw suffered injuries, police said

A 41-year-old woman fractured her collarbone, and her 48-year-old friend and the driver of the auto-rickshaw in which the two were travelling suffered injuries after the vehicle overturned as she fought two men on a bike who tried to snatch her phone on the Sarai Kale Khan flyover in south Delhi on Friday, police said.

The snatchers sped away with the cellphone, leaving behind the two women and the auto driver injured on the flyover. (Picture for representation only)

The snatchers sped away with the cellphone, leaving behind the two women and the auto driver injured on the flyover. They have not been arrested so far, police said. The incident, latest in a series of snatching cases in which the victims suffered fatal or serious injuries besides losing their property, came to light on Monday.

On Monday, Tashi Yangzon Bhutia, who is a native of Darjeeling, visited a private hospital where the doctors told her that she will have to undergo a surgery for her fractured left collarbone that will cost around ₹1 lakh, police said.

She said her friend, Tsering Wangmo, who had come to Delhi from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore to buy readymade garments for her business, suffered injuries to her legs and hands. Wangmo returned to Indore on Sunday.

According to Delhi Police data, Delhi reported 5,108 snatching cases till 15 this year -- 851 more than what was reported during the same period in 2020.

When contacted over phone about Friday’s snatching incident, Wangmo said she was travelling in an auto with Bhutia towards Majnu Ka Tila in north Delhi from East of Kailash in south Delhi. Bhutia was seated on the left side of the rear seat, and was holding her iPhone in her hand. Around 1 pm, when the auto was crossing the Sarai Kale Khan flyover, two bike-borne men wearing helmets started riding parallel to the auto.

“Suddenly, the pillion rider tried to snatch my friend’s (Bhutia’s) iPhone from her hand. When she resisted, she slipped and her left leg came out of the auto rickshaw. The sudden jerk caused by my friend resisting the snatchers led to the auto driver losing control over the vehicle. The auto overturned and both of us fell on the road. The auto driver, however, came under the vehicle. The snatchers fled with my sister’s phone,” said Wangmo.

According to Wangmo, some passersby stopped and helped them. One of them used her phone to inform the police about the crime. A police team arrived and rushed the three injured to Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital.

“After treatment all the three injured were discharged from the hospital. The statements of the injured persons were recorded and accordingly a case of voluntarily causing hurt in committing a robbery and common intention was registered under Indian Penal Code’s sections 394 and 34 at the Sunlight Colony police station. An investigation is on,” said deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Esha Pandey.

Bhutia, who has been living in Delhi for the past 11 years and runs a hair extension business, said this is the second such violent incident that she has faced in the city in the past couple of years. According to her, she faced another snatching in north Delhi’s Civil Lines areas, however she did not remember the year.

“That time, I was travelling in a cycle-rickshaw and my daughter was sitting in my lap. The criminals tried to snatch my purse. I resisted their attempt. They gave up because my daughter was in my lap and we could have fallen down from the moving rickshaw,” said Bhutia, refusing to speak further on the incident, saying she was in extreme pain because of the fracture.

In a series on crime in Delhi in March, HT reported that unemployed, illiterate, school drop-outs, arrested for the first time are common threads that connect almost every person arrested for snatching in Delhi since 2018, highlighting how one of the most serious concerns on the streets of the national capital is also its biggest gateway crime.

On February 27 this year, a woman was stabbed to death in north Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar even as she held her two-year-old daughter in her arms while trying to defend herself against snatchers.

On August 22, a 38-year-old woman suffered injuries and later succumbed to them after she fell out of a moving e-rickshaw, and dragged on the road by two bike-borne snatchers in outer Delhi’s Mangolpuri. The snatchers fled with her purse containing her cellphone and other articles.