Juvenile attacks DRDO official in Hyderabad

16-year-old pickpocket tries to evade police arrest

A 16-year-old pickpocket, in an attempt to escape after stealing a mobile phone, slashed an official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with a razor blade in the crowded Charminar area of the city on Sunday.

R K Satpathy, the regional director of the DRDO’s Koraput unit, was immediately taken to the hospital where he was declared to be “out of danger”.

Around 15 DRDO officials were in Hyderabad to attend a seminar.

Satpathy and his colleagues were in the Charminar area to sight-see and shop when the juvenile, taking advantage of the crowd, snatched a cell phone from the pocket of DRDO official Logaonkar, DCP (South Zone) Sarvashresth Tripathi said.

Locals, as well as the DRDO men, chased down and caught hold of the teenager. Satpathy was keeping an eye on the boy while police were being alerted.

“After catching the teenager, who is a pickpocket and addicted to sniffing whitener, they alerted the police. The boy then took out a shaving blade, attacked Satpathy and fled,” Tripathi explained.

The boy, who is still on the run, was recently arrested in a chain-snatching case and for quarreling with a local, though he was out on bail, police said. The Hussaini Alam police booked a case under relevant Sections of the IPC, including attempt to murder, in connection with the incident.

Clarifying that the incident had nothing to do with the research organisation, director of the DRDO Directorate of Public Interface Ravi Kumar Gupta said: “The director of the regional centre for military airworthiness (Satpathy) was on a visit here.

The incident has nothing to do with DRDO affairs.”