A view of the Supreme Court in New Delhi 20190924
A view of the Supreme Court in New Delhi Image Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Forget ordinary people, even Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s relatives are not safe from criminals in the nation’s capital and the situation becomes all the more alarming when such incidents take place in VIP areas.

Two suspects on Saturday snatched the purse of a woman who is reportedly a niece of the prime minister, the police said.

Damyanti Ben Modi came to Delhi from Amritsar on Saturday morning. She took an auto-rickshaw to reach the Civil Lines area in North Delhi.

At around 7am she arrived at the Gujarati Samaj Bhawan. While she was getting off from the three-wheeler two miscreants suddenly appeared on a motorcyle and swooped at her, said Delhi Police spokesperson Anil Mittal.

While talking to the media the woman said she was relative of the Prime Minister.

The victim said: “I came to Delhi from Amritsar with family and was going to Gujarati Samaj Bhawan. As soon as the auto-rickshaw reached the gate of the Bhawan two men swooped at me. They were riding on a scooty.”

“Before I could understand anything they fled with my purse that contained more than Rs50,000 [Dh2,587] cash, two mobile phones and some important documents,” she said.

Damyanti Ben added: “I had to take a flight to Ahmedabad on Saturday evening and the tickets were in that purse. Now, I don’t know how it would be managed. It was a bad experience to visit Delhi.”

North District Deputy Commissioner of Police Monika Bhardwaj did not reply to queries.

The Civil Lines area has the residences of Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in its vicinity while the Delhi Assembly is also situated nearby.