Naval officer’s son, niece chased and robbed inside south Delhi park

The cousins saved themselves by running out of the park where they came across two policemen in a Maruti Gypsy.

A naval officer’s teenaged son and niece were allegedly robbed and chased by two drunk men at a public park in south Delhi’s East of Kailash in the early hours of Sunday, police said.

A naval officer’s teenaged son and niece were allegedly robbed and chased by two drunk men at a public park in south Delhi’s East of Kailash

The 19-year-old girl was hurt in her legs after she was hurled to the ground by the men who allegedly robbed both their mobile phones. Her cousin escaped physically unhurt.

The cousins saved themselves by running out of the park where they came across two policemen in a Maruti Gypsy. The policemen nabbed one of the robbers from the park while another was caught on Monday morning. Both phones were recovered, said Chinmoy Biswal, DCP (south-east).

The cousins are undergraduate students in Delhi colleges and live in private hostels in East of Kailash. The teenager’s father is a commander with the Indian Navy and posted in Vishakhapatnam, said the DCP.

The teenager and his cousin were returning to their hostels after attending an event at the Varuna Naval Officers Mess around 3 am on Sunday when the crime happened in ‘Sapna’ park.

“They first robbed my mobile phone before they hurled my cousin to the ground and took her phone too. We were terrified, but I picked her up and ran towards the park’s gate. The robbers began chasing us and almost caught up with us, but we managed to reach the road outside. That forced them to back off,” said the youth.

He rushed his cousin to the safety of her hostel. “I then decided to go to a police station, but I came across a police Gypsy on the road outside the park. I told them about the crime and they launched a search,” he said.

The policemen were able to catch 35-year-old Mohan Chander who had panicked and was unable to hop onto the motorcycle on which his two friends fled. “Chander is a cook at a bungalow in Defence Colony. One robbed mobile phone was recovered from his jacket,” said the DCP.

At Chander’s instance, his 19-year-old associate was arrested on Monday and the other phone was recovered, the DCP said. “Both are drunkards and robbed park visitors to finance their drinking habit,” the DCP added.

Police said there was a third man in the park at the time of the robbery, but he was not involved in the crime. Efforts are on to identify him.