66-year-old woman, in Delhi for son's treatment, falls off e-rickshaw in snatching incident; critical

NEW DELHI: A 66-year-old woman from Arunachal Pradesh, who visited Delhi for her son's treatment, got critically injured after she fell from an e-rickshaw when a bike-borne man snatched her bag in north Delhi's Civil Lines. No arrests have been made yet.

The victim was identified as Kesang Dorjee, a native of Bomdilla in Arunachal Pradesh. The incident took place around 4 pm on December 17. The complainant, Passang Dorjee, who is a businessman by profession, said that he along with his mother and two sisters had come to the city last week for his liver treatment and were staying at Arunachal Bhawan in Chanakyapuri.

On the day of the incident, the family members had gone to the Tibetan market for lunch. Afterward, they took an e-rickshaw to Vidhan Sabha Metro Station. The victim, sitting on the right side of the vehicle, carried a bag. As they approached the Khyber Pass traffic light, the accused came from behind and snatched Kesang's bag. She lost her balance, fell to the ground, and sustained serious head and face injuries, the complainant said. The accused fled on his motorcycle with the purse that contained Rs 1 lakh, a voter ID card, an Aadhaar card and other important documents.

A case has been registered under sections 392 (robbery) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the IPC at the Civil Lines police station. Police are scanning CCTV footage of the spot and nearby areas to identify the snatchers and the routes taken by the accused to flee.

The complainant told TOI that his mother's condition was very critical. "She sustained serious injuries to her head and is currently on a ventilator," he said.

Passang added that after she fell down, he and his sisters took her to the hospital. "As soon as my mother fell down, she fell unconscious. Her teeth were broken. It was a scary situation," he recalled.

This was not the first incident where a woman received injuries during snatching. In September, two men on a bike dragged a 26-year-old woman off an e-rickshaw in Sultanpuri while trying to snatch her mobile phone. In August, a 24-year-old woman teacher fell off an auto and got dragged for some distance after being targeted by snatchers in south Delhi's Saket. The victim was on her way home when the incident took place. Last year, a 57-year-old woman died in Rohini after three men on a scooter snatched her purse, causing her to fall from a moving e-rickshaw.