A 20-year-old girl was brutally attacked by an unidentified man while she was heading home from college in North Delhi's Timarpur area on Thursday afternoon.
Although senior police officers claim that it was a snatching attempt turned violent, the girl, a student of Zakir Hussain College, in one of her initial statements told cops that prior to the day she was attacked, she had seen the attacker with a bunch of friends standing near her house.
"For the past two to three days, the girl stated that she saw some guy standing on the way near her house. However, she said that the man did nothing wrong. It was Thursday afternoon, at around 3.30 pm, while the first year student was returning home, she felt that someone was trying to attack her. When she turned around, she saw that a man, carrying a blade, was trying to cut the bag. When she resisted, he started attacking her.
Hearing her cries of help on-lookers came forward to the rescue of the girl while the accused fled away from the crime scene.
One of the locals made a call to the Police Control Room after which a police team rushed the girl to a nearby hospital where she was treated for her injuries. Since the attacker hit her with sharp edged object, the girl sustained deep cuts on her back and received around 38 stitches.
Discharged on Friday, the girl said that she is afraid to leave her home after the incident.
Meanwhile, police said that they are making efforts to trace the accused at the earliest.
Denying that the girl was attacked by a stalker or a jilted lover, DCP (North) Jatin Narwal, said, "We suspect that the accused who attacked the girl is a snatcher and was trying to steal her backpack. Unable to do so, he hit her with a blade."
This is the latest incident of snatching attempt in the national Capital where a young woman sustained injuries while trying to save her belongings.
In July, a 26-year-old woman from Manipur was grievously injured after she fell out of a moving auto while trying to fight off to resist a snatching bid in South-East Delhi's lajpat Nagar.
The woman skid and her face hit the road near the Moolchand flyover. She broke her teeth and received injuries on her face, limbs, and abdomen. She was admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre and later discharged.
In another incident, a 39-year-old woman on her way to Connaught Place was grievously wounded when she tried to fight off a snatching attempt by three men. The woman was in an auto-rickshaw along with her husband and nephew when the assailants tried to snatch her bag. During the scuffle near Defence Colony, victim Sharmila Rai fell off the vehicle and sustained head injuries.
The bikers managed to flee the spot with Rai's bag that contained her debit and credit cards, her mobile phone, some jewellery and Rs 7,000 cash in new notes. Police have registered a case of assault or criminal force in an attempt to commit theft.