New Delhi: An autorickshaw driver's quick thinking and bravery has saved the day for a fashion institute student whose bag was snatched on Tilak Marg by a bike-borne youth while she was riding in the three-wheeler.
When the snatcher grabbed and took away the 23-year-old student's bag, auto driver Umesh Kumar started chasing the bike and managed to somehow waylay him. Meanwhile, a person in a car also gave the bike a chase. At one point the thief on the bike was sandwiched between the bike and the auto. His bike fell, and Kumar caught the snatcher. The woman retrieved her bag and handed the snatcher over to the police.
The theft, reported on Oct 28, happened when the woman, a student at a fashion institute in Odisha, was on her way to CR Park in Kumar's autorickshaw.
She told the police that she was travelling from her home in Nathu Colony, Shahdara, to south Delhi's CR Park in the auto. "Around 11.15am, near the Ring Road Pragati power station, a youth on a bike snatched my black handbag," she told police.
The snatcher was identified as 30-year-old Shammi, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase 3. "I called 112, and the police arrived, to whom I handed over the snatcher along with the bike and the stolen bag," the woman said later.
While speaking to TOI, the woman said that she was travelling to the market in an autorickshaw and had two bags. "One boy came on a bike and snatched my bag. I was screaming at the snatcher to get my bag back. The auto driver gave a chase and tried to sandwich him, and got help from another car," she said. It all happened very quickly on a busy road, she added.
She added that Kumar, after this brave act, remained with her in the police station doing all the legal formalities. "I told him that he could go as he was losing passengers, but he remained there," she said.
Kumar, who is from Karampura and has been driving an autorickshaw since 1982, said, "It was my duty to help the woman who was screaming for help. When I caught the snatcher, he initially claimed innocence but later confessed to the crime."