Indian Express: Hockey player chases and thrashes men who stole her friend’s phone in west Delhi

Police said the accused, Dalchand alias Sunny (19), is an “active snatcher” in the area and a resident of Bakkar village.

By Abhishek Angad

After two men snatched her friend’s phone while they were travelling on a bus, a national-level hockey player asked the driver to stop the bus, ran to the spot where the men were standing, and handed one of them a beating.

The incident took place in west Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh on January 20, when Ritu Bhoraiya, who has represented Haryana and Delhi in national-level hockey tournaments, was taking the bus to Peeragarhi with two of her friends.

Bhoraiya told The Indian Express that there were very few people on the bus when the incident took place. “I had gone to get the tickets when two men got down at Mandipur bus stop. My friend did not raise an alarm, but she quietly told me that her phone has been snatched. The bus had already travelled some distance by then but I asked the driver to stop and got down,” she said.

“After reaching the spot where the men got down, I saw them standing on the other side of the road. Seeing me, one of them fled, but I caught hold of the other one. I gave him a severe beating and then called the police for help,” she said, adding that she also recovered the phone.

Police said the accused, Dalchand alias Sunny (19), is an “active snatcher” in the area and a resident of Bakkar village. He was previously arrested in a snatching case in May, 2016.

During interrogation, Dalchand confessed that he had snatched mobile phones and money from other people in the area.