Unobserved by the law enforcement agencies, organised groups of robbers have been operating in the Patparganj-Mayur Vihar area of New Delhi. These groups target rickshaw pullers late in the night and loot their day’s earnings, mobile phones and other valuables while holding them at knife point. So far, reports of such incidents have come only from rickshaw pullers. Pramod Yadav of Begusarai, Bihar, who collects his passengers from Mayur Vihar Phase 1 metro station and drops them off at several spots all over Patparganj-Mayur Vihar, refuses to take passengers for Adarsh Mohalla after 9:30-10pm. “I have been a victim twice. The first incident happened a year ago. They took about Rs 500 and my phone, and the second incident happened about three months ago when they snatched away Rs 300,” said Yadav.
Another rickshaw-puller, Manish, said: “After dropping my last passenger for the day at Adarsh Mohalla at around 10:30pm, I was getting back to my lodgings. A man stopped me, and I was surrounded by four more who looted Rs 4,000 and stabbed me when I resisted.”
These crimes are also a problem for the residents of Adarsh Mohalla as they don’t get a rickshaw-puller to reach home from the Metro station. Jyoti Singh, a resident of Adarsh Mohalla, said it is very hard for her to reach home from the Metro station without a rickshaw at night as she gets late quite often because of her work. However, the Pandav Nagar police station denied hearing of any such incident. “We have regular night patrols in the area and we have not received any complaints about such incidents,” said an on-duty officer who refused to reveal his name.