Several teams have been deployed to arrest the criminals, the police said. (File)

The police said they have identified the two criminals who snatched the handbag of a woman who has claimed to be the niece of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the Civil Lines area, in New Delhi on Saturday.

Delhi Police spokesperson Assistant Police Commissioner Anil Mittal told news agency IANS that both the criminals, one of them a teenager, would be arrested soon.

The police got clues from CCTV footage and several teams have been deployed to arrest the criminals. One of these teams has identified them, who are from Delhi, Mr Mittal said.

According to sources, the suspected criminals have been taken into custody, but the police has not disclosed the information due to one of them being underage.

The incident took place when Damayanti Ben Modi, who said she is the daughter of the Prime Minister's brother, was getting off from an auto-rickshaw outside the gates of Gujarati Samaj Bhavan in Civil Lines.

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 7 am she reached Gujarati Samaj Bhawan. While she was getting off from the three-wheeler two anti-social elements suddenly appeared on a scooty and swooped at her, the Delhi Police spokesperson had said.

While talking to the media the woman said that she is a relative of the Prime Minister.

"Before I could understand anything they fled with my purse that contained more than Rs. 50,000 cash, two mobile phones and some important documents," she said.

"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," Damyanti Ben Modi added.

North District Deputy Commissioner of Police Monika Bhardwaj avoided making any comment on the incident.