38 year old Uma Patwal of Chatterpur succumbs at Sanjay Gandhi hospital after grievous head injury bravely fighting the snatchers

Thirty eight years old Uma Patwal resident of Chattarpur, Delhi, originally hailing from Garhwal Uttarakhand has succumbed to the grievous injuries at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Sultanpuri, while bravely resisting and fighting the chain snatchers on the day of Raksha Bandhan at Mangolpuri, D block from where she was heading to Sultanpuri to tie Rakhi to her brother. Severely injured Uma Patwal fighting for her life for six days died in Sanjay Gandhi hospital on Friday.

According to the latest news, the local police which had solved the case in just a week after watching and analysing about 127 CCTV footages from Rithala station to the spot of crime in Mangolpuri had initially lodged the FIR for an accident case as the nature of severe injuries on the unconscious women showed as if she was grievously injured in an accident.

On analysing all the CCTV footages the investigating officers saw that the two chain snatchers on a Pulser bike have been following an E Rikshaw chasing a woman finally snatching her mobile and a hand bag. The police thereafter interrogated about two hundred E Rickshaws from metro station of Rithala from where the victim had hired it to reach to her destination. On constant interrogation, the police were finally able to trace the E Rickshaw hired by the woman ( victim).

On enquiry the concerned driver of the E Rickshaw revealed to the police that two chain snatchers followed him and tried to snatch the bag of the woman but she resisted with her full might finally being dragged down from the running rickshaw. While valiantly resisting the culprits not only was she dragged on road but was also thrashed by them resulting in her grievous injuries going unconscious crying in acute pain.

The victim was ferried to Sanjay Gandhi hospital from Mangolpuri by a stranger who saw her crying for help with severe head injuries. The police got the call from the hospital about the girl being injured severely with head injury probably due to accident as the culprits had fled by then leaving her injured.

According to the police initially her wounds gave the impression that she was hurt in an accident but after their detailed inquiry and seeing the CCTV footages the police came to the conclusion about the woman having been the victims of a criminal act. However, the police need to be patted for arresting the culprits involved in the crime.

In another incident in Bawana area, outer Delhi a woman was also attacked by robbers who followed her from a bank from where the woman had withdrawn Rs. 2.5 lakhs. This woman too fought bravely with the bike borne robbers who followed her from the bank and finally tried to snatch her bag. The woman had hung the bag with 2.5 lakh cash on her shoulder after withdrawing the cash not knowing that she is being followed by three robbers.

One of the robber stooped her and tried to snatch the bag but the woman resisted. While the fight between both of them was going on, one of the wads of notes fell down and was forcibly picked by the robber who ran away from the scene. But the woman was able to save her two lakh rupees losing only Rs. 50000. According to the deputy commissioner of police the entire incident was recorded in a CCTV footage with police having the solid evidence about the robbers. Nobody has been caught but the police is looking for them, hopeful of bringing them to justice at the earliest.

Kindly recall that though incident of snatching are on the rise in entire Delhi, the outer Delhi district is the worst affected with these incidents going unabated with laws allegedly being not so hard to deter them from committing these crimes. In February and March two women one at Adarsh Nagar and another at Majnu Ka Tila were stabbed n shot dead by chain snatchers.

Majority of the victims are afraid of lodging complaints or FIR fearing reprisals from criminals encouraging them committing more crimes. According to a TOI report Delhi needs to have a dedicated and more stringent laws on snatching. However, the Delhi Police had broached the issue with the Lt governor and union home ministry but of no avail.

Featured Pic : courtesy TOI