"I feel so lucky that my mobile is with me even after the incident,” says Kusum, daughter of a daily wager, Sadhu Ram. (Express photo)Recovering after a surgery of the wrist, 15-year-old Kusum keeps her mobile phone close to her even on the hospital bed. The Class 8 student had suffered injuries Sunday while trying to save it from bike-borne snatchers who attacked her with a sharp weapon.
“I feel so lucky that my mobile is with me even after the incident,” says Kusum, daughter of a daily wager, Sadhu Ram.
As the bike-borne men tried snatching her phone, Kusum refused to let them get away and finally managed to catch one of them despite being repeatedly hit on her arm with a weapon. The incident landed her at Joshi Hospital where she had to undergo a minor surgery on the wrist.
While she showed immense courage in the face of the attack, what Kusum did not realise was that the man she cornered was no ordinary criminal but a habitual offender facing seven criminal cases. The man, Avinash, was released from jail recently under Covid-19 relaxation. Police are yet to arrest the other accused so far.
A CCTV footage, which went viral on social media, shows Kumari holding on to a snatcher despite being attacked with a sharp object.
“I was about to call my father to inform him that I was on my way home and suddenly someone hit me from behind and snatched my mobile phone,” she said, adding that the only thought in her mind at that instant was to get her mobile phone back.
“I believed I could fight them, and I did so. Perhaps I got this confidence because I had learnt Taekwondo along with my friends from training videos online,” she said.
Kusum is the youngest among three siblings. Her elder sister, Poonam, is Class 12 pass, while her brother, Pramod, is a driver. The family, which originally hails from UP, had been living in Jalandhar for the past four decades.
Speaking about the incident, Kusum, said: “My life has completely changed as I am getting so much attention from all corners.”
The father, who works on daily wages at an iron sheet factory, said: “She has dreams and I do not want to stop her. I have put her in a good school now as her previous school was not that great. The monthly expenditure on her education is around Rs 3,000, including her school fee, tuition fee and conveyance.”
The father said the man who rushed to her rescue, Mangat Ram Sharma, and helped her nab one of the two criminals has been a great help even after the incident.
Sharma said he was sitting in the courtyard of his house when he heard the girl’s call for help and ran out immediately. “We managed to nab one of the accused,” he added.