New Delhi / PM's niece followed for 15 minutes before snatching; 100 officers on case

At least 100 police personnel from special cell and crime branch, divided in 20 teams, have fanned out across the city to locate and scan CCTV footage to nab the two men involved in the case of Damyanti Ben Modi.

An officer privy to the probe said CCTV footage so far shows the two scooter riders following the woman and her family from outside Old Delhi Railway station for almost 15 minutes. The suspects in the case were captured on multiple CCTVs installed on the routes that they took before and after the crime.

Saturday’s snatching was one of the rare cases where Delhi Police had formed so many teams, with almost the entire north district police force being pressed into action to identify and nab the suspects.

Police said that they had rounded up more than 50 suspects so far. They also claimed that the suspects had been identified and one of them was from central Delhi while the other may be a juvenile from northeast Delhi.

Damyanti Ben Modi’s handbag containing around Rs 56,000, two cellphones, debit cards, and original IDs, was snatched by the two men outside Shree Delhi Gujarati Samaj building in high-security Civil Lines area, barely 300 metres away from the L-G’s residence.

The place where Damyanti’s bag was snatched was covered by at least six CCTVs. Locals said the street often sees the presence of a large number of police personnel, because of two schools which are adjacent to the crime scene and the movement of the L-G’s motorcade.

“Snatching incident on this road is not something we often hear of. It’s because the locality is posh and the residence of Delhi’s L-G and chief minister is not too far. We often seen police patrolling the neighbourhood on motorcycles and vans. But the way the woman’s bag was snatched certainly makes us feel unsafe,” said Raman Singh, a taxi operator in the neighbourhood.

In response to the recent cases of snatchers where Delhi’s snatchers have even assaulted their targets, former Delhi police commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma said, “Instead of using the conventional ways of catching criminals, the police should tackle them in a particular way. They should lay traps and nab them red-handed. The police should identify and arrest those people who purchase stolen properties.”

Investigators probing Saturday’s snatching case said that more than 200 CCTV cameras installed between the crime scene and Old Delhi railway station — where Damyanti, her husband , and two children had boarded an auto-rickshaw around 6.30 am — were scanned. The video footage trail showed the suspects following the auto-rickshaw soon after the family left the railway station to reach Shree Delhi Gujarati Samaj.

“The suspects followed the auto and fled with the woman’s bag. Her stolen phones were put on surveillance. The last location of one of her phone was in Paharganj. It seems that the suspects switched off the phones in that area. Our teams are rounding up criminals active in Paharganj and nearby areas,” said an investigator.