Phone snatchers leave youth with liver and kidney damage in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: A 21-year-old private firm employee was left with a ruptured liver and a damaged kidney after he was hit repeatedly in the stomach with a brick by a group of three youths who tried to snatch his phone.
Doctors at the private hospital where Ayush is undergoing treatment told TOI that they had to surgically remove a portion of his left kidney to save him. "His liver was ruptured too, but we have repaired that. He is in the ICU and under observation," a hospital representative said.

Police said the three accused - one of them a minor - were apprehended from Basai Chowk on Friday. Two of them were identified as Mohit and Mohan, both 19. Originally from Nepal, the three sold momos at a roadside stall in the evening, the police said.
Around 11.30pm on January 9, Ayush was returning from office in Sector 14 when the three on a scooter tried to snatch his phone near the junction of sectors 7 and 9. When he resisted, they allegedly picked up a brick lying on the road and hit him repeatedly until he loosened his grip over the phone.
From Bokaro in Jharkhand, Ayush has been staying with his uncle and aunt in Sector 9 of Gurugram for the past two years.
"I shudder to see my son battling for his life in hospital. Doctors have had to remove a portion of his kidney. There are multiple stitches on his liver. What was his fault? That he tried to resist their attempts to snatch his phone?" asked Manoj Kumar, Ayush's father who came from Bokaro after coming to know about the attack on his son.
The Monday evening attack on Ayush came a day after an assistant sub-inspector of Delhi Police succumbed to injuries after being stabbed repeatedly in the stomach by a phone snatcher.
In Gurugram, a man who works with a bike taxi aggregator came to Ayush's rescue. As the 21-year-old lay moaning on the road, the biker stopped and took him to the nearest hospital.
Assistant commissioner of police Preet Pal Sangwan said they received information about the attack from the hospital where Ayush was admitted.
"The youth's uncle had lodged a written complaint at the Sector 9A police station. The complaint was forwarded to Amit Kumar, who is in charge of the crime branch. The police tracked down the accused and caught them from Basai Chowk. One of them is a minor. The phone that was snatched was also recovered," he added.
The officer said one of the accused had been to jail a couple of years ago. "This is not their first case of snatching. Earlier too, they had snatched a phone from a person. That, too, we recovered. They will be produced in court and we will seek their remand for further questioning," Sangwan added.
Hospital authorities said Ayush had shown signs of improvement. "We have had to do a heminephrectomy on the kidney to save the patient. He is stable but under observation," the hospital official said.