New Delhi: Two phone-snatching incidents were reported near India Gate over the weekend, with the victims including a tourist from Canada and an HR executive on her way to AIIMS.In the first incident, which took place on May 22, bike-borne assailants targeted Sukhvinder Singh, a 27-year-old Canada-based police department employee, while he was taking a selfie near Kartavya Path. A PCR call regarding the incident was received around 2.45 am.“I had come to visit India Gate. Around 1am Friday, when I was standing near the Army office gate on Sher Shah Suri Road and taking a selfie, a motorcycle carrying two men approached me. Both had covered their faces with masks and appeared to be around 30-35 years old,” Singh wrote in his complaint.He alleged that the pillion rider, who was wearing a pink shirt, snatched his iPhone 16 from his hand and fled towards Mathura Road along with his accomplice.In the other incident, a 35-year-old woman’s iPhone was snatched on Sunday on her way to AIIMS with her mother-in-law, who was scheduled to undergo surgery at the hospital.“Around 8am, just as we had reached Zakir Hussain Road near India Gate, two men on a bike suddenly pulled up beside our autorickshaw and snatched my phone,” said the woman, who works with a private firm.Already weighed down by the stress of the medical procedure, the woman said the incident left her shaken. “I completely froze. For a few seconds, my mind just stopped working,” she recalled. The shock was compounded by the fact that she had bought the expensive phone barely four months ago.As the phone was stolen, the autorickshaw screeched to a halt a few metres ahead and turned back in an attempt to chase the snatchers. But by that time, the men had already disappeared into the morning traffic.The woman then rushed to the cops and got a case registered at the Kartavya Path police station. While police did not comment, the victim claimed that two people were arrested and she was asked to identify them. She added that she got a call a day later, on Monday, from the cops informing her that the phone had been traced and the suspects nabbed. She was also asked to collect the device and identify the men.Cops said FIRs in both the cases have been registered. However, the back-to-back snatchings in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi have raised concerns over security. Snatchers generally stay away from high-security zones as the chances of getting caught are higher. Moreover, victims in such areas often turn out to be high-profile, attracting significant media and police attention. Last Aug, Tamil Nadu Congress MP R Sudha was targeted in a chain-snatching incident near Gates 3 and 4 of the Embassy of Poland.Data shows that on average, nearly 20 snatching cases are reported across the city every day. In 2024, Delhi recorded 6,493 cases of snatching while in 2025, at least 5,406 incidents were reported.
