A 28-year-old man with a walking disability used his crutches to allegedly attack a businessman while robbing that man of his mobile phone in south Delhi’s Jasola Saturday evening, police said.

While fleeing after the alleged crime, the disabled man was left behind while his two associates made off with the phone.

Police identified the arrested suspect by his first name, Suresh, a resident of south Delhi’s Madanpur Khadar. “He had injured his left leg in a road mishap a few years ago,” Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said.

Police said Suresh lives with his mother and his neighbours knew him as a man who played the dhol at ‘jagrans (prayer meetings)’. But the DCP said Suresh and his two friends used to snatch phones and jewellery to fund their drinking habit.

“He was never booked for snatching in the past, but we had once detained him as a preventive measure,” Biswal said.

Another officer said Suresh would ride a scooter while his two friends would ride pillion with him. “He needed one associate to help snatch the valuable while the other held on to him while he rode with his crutches by his sides,” the officer said.

Around 5pm Saturday, the three men targeted a businessman near Jasola Metro station. Manoj Kumar Yadav, the businessman, said, “I was walking towards the Jasola Metro station when three men on a scooter intercepted me. The man riding the scooter was disabled and supported himself on the scooter with two crutches.”

Before Yadav could understand the situation, the trio had hopped off the scooter. “The scooter rider repeatedly attacked me with his crutches, but I ducked each time,” Yadav said.

The two other suspects then pinned down Yadav.

One of them allegedly brought out a knife and forced Yadav to hand over his phone.

“But when the robbers were escaping, I caught hold of the man wielding the crutches. The other two escaped with my phone. The man I had caught urged me to let him go and threatened that he had a pistol in his scooter,” Yadav said.

But Yadav’s cries for help were heard by a head constable out on patrolling duty, DCP said.

“The head constable helped nab Suresh. We also seized his scooter and there was no pistol inside. Suresh was bluffing,” Biswal said.

A case of robbery, criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint has been registered at Sarita Vihar police station.

The police have identified Suresh’s associates, but they remain on the run.

First Published: May 01, 2019 11:11 IST