NEW DELHI: A 57-year-old woman was killed during a snatching bid in Rohini when three men on a scooter snatched her purse, making her fall off a moving e-rickshaw she was travelling in. The victim, Sumitra Mittal, suffered severe head injuries and died in hospital. The police claimed to have arrested the snatchers within 24 hours of the incident and recovered some of the stolen belongings. The accused have been identified as Raju, Rahul and Rohan, all aged between 18 and 22. Sumitra had a particularly tragic life with her husband having passed away many years ago and her two sons dying of a stroke and heart attack – the younger one at 18 and the elder at 30. With the latest unfortunate event, only the wife and 11-year-old son of the elder son have survived. The incident has exposed many lacunae in the law and order machinery given the fact that three men – none of them wearing helmets – managed to move around on a stolen bike without being noticed by any cop. This is the second death during a snatching bid in Delhi this year. In February, a woman had died in a similar incident in Anand Vihar after falling from an e-rickshaw during a snatching bid. Snatchers struck at traffic signal, fled as woman fell A 57-year-old woman lost her life trying to thwart a snatching bid in Rohini’s Sector 13 at 10.30am on Wednesday. Sumitra Mittal was going to her sister’s house in Prashant Vihar for Bhai Dooj when the three men attempted to snatch her purse. She resisted, but they jerked it off her hand. In the process, Sumitra fell from the e-rickshaw and hit her head on the road even as the three men fled. The police denied reports that the woman was dragged for several metres. The e-rickshaw driver rushed her to the hospital where she died of her injuries. Sources said she had suffered brain damage and a haemorrhage during the fall and couldn’t be resuscitated. Meanwhile, a case under sections related to murder and robbery was registered and investigations started. A CCTV footage showed the snatchers fleeing from the spot on their bike. The e-rickshaw driver, Manoj, recalled that we would take Sumitra for religious programmes in the area. “On Wednesday morning, her daughter-in law and grandson escorted her to the e-rickshaw with some of her bags. She had to reach Prashant Vihar. We encountered a traffic signal which had turned red and there was some congestion. So, I was turning into a left lane near Bharat Apartments when the three men came and tried to snatch her purse,” he said. “Within seconds, she had fallen down even as the accused fled. One of them was wearing a white shirt while the other two were wearing blue shirts. None of them was wearing a helmet,” said Manoj. DCP (Rohini) Pranav Tayal told TOI the scooter used in crime was found stolen from Badli in Outer North district. “Fifteen teams were formed for identifying and tracing the accused. Each team was assigned to carry out specific tasks like collecting and developing CCTV footage, identifying the route of the offenders, developing information from the local sources and taking the help from the criminal record database,” said the DCP. The accused were eventually tracked using technical leads and the police information network. One of the accused, Rahul, was earlier involved in two other cases of theft registered in the Badli area. The house keys of the victim and Rs 200 which were in her purse have been recovered.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-woman-falls-off-e-rickshaw-as-3-men-snatch-purse-dies-of-head-injury/articleshow/95131757.cms