Loan recovery agents hijack bus with 34 on board

private bus with 34 passengers on board was allegedly hijacked by some people from a finance company in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra, officials said on Wednesday.

The bus was recovered from a dhaba in Etawah district on Wednesday afternoon, more than 12 hours after it was hijacked, they said, adding that all passengers were safe and en route to their destinations in other vehicles. The incident took place in the Malpura police station area on Tuesday night when the bus was en route to Panna in Madhya Pradesh from Haryana’s Gurgaon, according to police. Additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Awasthi in the morning said the bus driver, staff and passengers are safe.

Earlier in the day, Agra SSP Babloo Kumar said three people who got off the bus informed police that representatives of a finance company had boarded it. Later in the evening, he said the finance company people had taken over the bus not over the financing of the bus but due to a money-related trouble between one of the suspects and the bus owner.

SSP Kumar eight to nine young men in two SUVS intercepted the bus was near the Raibha toll plaza at the Dakshin bypass.

“They got in and forcibly brought down the driver and the conductor. They also told the passengers to not scream and assured them that no harm will be done to them,” he added.”

Later, four of these men boarded the bus and sped away on the Delhi-kanpur highway, Kumar said.

POLICE SAID THE

BUS WAS HIJACKED BETWEEN AGRA AND MATHURA, BUT ACCOUNTS OF THE INCIDENT DIFFER