Cops felicitate elderly man who helped nab bike-borne snatchers

NEW DELHI: Trying to rob the wife of a senior citizen proved costly for two bike-borne men, who tried to snatch her earring but were taken down by the agile old man who caught hold of them before passersby helped nab the miscreants.

The brave efforts of 63-year-old Ravindra Pathak were recognised by Delhi Police, who felicitated him.

The incident occurred around 6.30 am on Friday, when Pathak – a retired gardener with Delhi Development Authority and resident of Nehru Vihar – was on a morning walk with his wife Bhawani.

As the elderly couple reached Adarsh Lakhpat School in north east Delhi's Karawal Nagar, two miscreants on a motorcycle slowly passed by them. Suddenly, they snatched Bhawani's earring and sped away.

The alert Pathak immediately caught hold of the robber's shirt seated in the backseat and grabbed him. The other culprit, meanwhile, accelerated his motorcycle to flee the spot.

However, an auto-rickshaw driver passing came right in front of the biker and stopped him. Soon, other passersby nabbed the two thieves and handed them over to the cops.

Unfortunately, the robbers secretly passed off the earring to a third unknown person, who could not be identified by Pathak. The entire incident was recorded in a CCTV camera.

"Showing exemplary courage, Ravindra Pathak helped police in arresting two robbers Javed and Aarif, who are involved in more than 19 cases of robbery and snatching of different police stations," said A K Singla, DCP, North East Delhi.