Teen girl dragged 350m by bike snatchers in Jalandhar

Just yesterday, The Tribune highlighted the rise in petty crimes in Jalandhar, and yet another incident underscores the gravity of the situation. Laxmi, a Class XII student, was dragged along the road for nearly 350 metres by snatchers on a bike who forcibly took her mobile phone, leaving her injured and traumatised. The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon but came to light late last evening after a 44-second CCTV footage of the crime went viral.

This case follows closely on the heels of another snatching incident involving a college student on the Ladowali road just two days earlier. The girl was walking home from college, holding her phone, when two bike-borne snatchers targeted her, grabbing her phone and fleeing before she could react.

Laxmi, an 18-year-old government school student from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, now residing in Jalandhar’s Garden Colony, was returning home with her younger sister and a neighbour’s daughter when she noticed three men on a motorcycle watching her. As she neared her house, the bike stopped, and one of the men briefly said, “Sorry”. Confused, Laxmi did not react immediately. Moments later, the man riding pillion snatched her phone. Despite Laxmi’s resistance, the snatchers dragged her across the road and fled with the phone.

“The phone is important to me—it’s how I study,” Laxmi said, heartbroken over losing the device her labourer parents had saved to buy. “The wounds will heal, but the snatchers took away the phone my parents bought with their hard-earned money,” Laxmi said.

The incident sparked outrage after the CCTV footage surfaced, raising concerns over Jalandhar’s deteriorating law-and-order situation.

SHO Division Number 6, Sahil Chaudhary, confirmed that the investigation is ongoing and assured that the culprits will be caught soon.