LOAN AGENTS CRUSH DALIT FARMER UNDER TRACTOR

LUCKNOW: Recovery agents crushed a Dalit farmer under a tractor in Sitapur on Saturday when he failed to deposit the arrear of the loan that he had taken from a finance company, police said.

Assistant superintendent of police (ASP), Sitapur, Martand Prakash Singh said an FIR had been lodged against five recovery agents of the finance company.

“Teams have been constituted to nab the absconding accused,” he said. Police said Gyan Chandra (45) of Bhauri village in Sitapur had taken a loan of ~5 lakh from a finance company in 2015 to purchase a tractor.

He paid back ~4 lakh till December 2017 and assured the company that he would clear the remaining amount soon.

Gyan Chandra’s wife Gyanwati said her husband deposited an instalment of ~35,000 in the first week of January but the company issued a recovery notice.

Police said five agents of the company reached G ya nC hand ra’ s house on Saturday to collect the dues. When the family told agents that he wasp lo ugh in gt he field of a pan ch a ya tm em ber with the tractor, they reached there and asked the farmer to either pay the remaining amount or hand over the tractor to them.

Chandra told the agents that he had deposited ~35,000 earlier this month and would pay ~65,000 by January-end. The agents refused to entertain his plea and pulled him down after snatching the tractor’s key from him.