NEW DELHI: Snatchers are becoming audacious despite heightened police vigil, with another journalist now falling victim to their crime that is on the rise in the national capital. Prior to this case, two bike-borne men had snatched the purse of PM Narendra Modi’s niece when she was getting off an auto-rickshaw. Police had then swung into action and arrested the two accused after a massive operation.
Shekhar Singh, a crime reporter at an English newspaper, was on a call in east Delhi’s New Ashok Nagar area when a snatcher targeted him on Wednesday night, police said. Unlike most other incidents where the snatchers committed the crime on two-wheelers, the culprit came on foot in this case. This is the fourth such case in which a journalist was targeted in the national capital in less than four weeks. On September 22, a woman journalist was badly injured after snatchers robbed her phone from a moving auto-rickshaw in CR Park.
Singh, 32, from Haryana, was with a friend at a market area when the snatcher targeted him talking over the phone. “I was in the area with a friend. I was talking on the phone when a young man came from behind to snatch my phone and ran away. I went after him but couldn’t chase him,” Singh said, adding that the spot of crime was about 200 m away from the New Ashok Nagar metro station and about 20 m away from the crowded market area.
“He was on foot. He must have parked his vehicle away from the market area...I had been on a call for long. Seems like he had his eyes on me and was waiting for a chance to grab my phone,” Singh said.
The journalist had bought his smartphone about two weeks back.“After I reported the incident, the police traced the location of my phone in Shakarpur. They sent a team there but failed to nab the culprit.”
An FIR under sections dealing with theft and snatching was lodged at the New Ashok Nagar police station. In the complaint, Singh said that he could identify the man if produced before him. Police said that the CCTV footage of the spot is being examined and that efforts are on to find the accused.