Congress parliamentarian R. Sudha was robbed of her gold chain by a masked man on a two-wheeler during her morning walk at the high-security Shantipath in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri on Monday.

Opposition MPs questioned the deteriorating law and order situation under the “triple-engine government” in Delhi.

Sudha, MP from Tamil Nadu’s Mayiladuthurai Lok Sabha constituency, said she suffered injuries to her neck and her outfit was also torn during the attack. Slamming the government for “making the capital unsafe for women”, she said the incident had traumatised her.

She has written to Union home minister Amit Shah, ruing the lack of adequate security resulting in the attack on an MP in a “high-security zone”.

Her gold chain weighing more than four sovereigns was snatched by a man on a scooty when she was on her morning walk along with DMK Rajya Sabha member Rajathi Salma outside the Polish embassy in Chanakyapuri.

Sudha, in her letter, said the incident was a blatant attack on a woman and an MP in a high-security zone like Chanakyapuri, which has several embassies.

“At around 6.15am-6.20am, when we were near the Poland embassy’s Gate-3 and Gate-4, a man wearing a full helmet and thereby covering his face entirely and riding a scooty approached us from the opposite direction and snatched my gold chain and fled,” she said in her letter to Shah.

“Since he was coming slowly in the opposite direction I did not suspect he could be a chain-snatcher. As he pulled the chain from my neck, I have suffered injuries on my neck, and my churidar also got torn in the impact. I somehow managed not to fall, and both of us cried for help.

“It is highly shocking, to say the least. If a woman cannot walk safely in this high-priority zone in the national capital of India, where else can we feel safe and do our routine without fearing for our limbs, lives and valuables.”

She urged the home minister to ensure the culprit is tracked down and arrested and her chain is restored and “justice rendered to me expeditiously”. She also slammed the Delhi government, saying that the incident happened when a woman was serving as the chief minister of Delhi.

“I am still in shock. There is no safety for women in the capital.... I am thinking about the common women, where will they go? A woman CM is ruling this state. Where is safety and security? Had he slit my neck, I would have died on the spot,” Sudha told reporters.

“He pulled my chain and tore my clothes. I wanted to fix my clothes and that is why I was not bothered about my chain. After snatching, he left immediately. I shouted, and everybody was there on the road, but nobody was ready to come and help me.

“That shocked me. I then proceeded to the nearby Tamil Nadu Bhavan guesthouse. I saw a police patrol with two cops and we informed them. But the policemen didn’t react much. They just took our phone numbers and names. They asked me to come down to Chanakyapuri police station to lodge a complaint,” she added.

The BJP is in power at the Centre, the Union Territory, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi — a “triple-engine sarkar” as the party calls it. This is the first time since 2007 that a single party has controlled all three levels in the capital.