UP: Loan recovery agents hijack bus with 34 passengers

■ Passengers safe, bus missing

Agra/Lucknow, Aug. 19: A privately-operated bus with 34 passengers on board was hijacked by loan recovery agents of a finance company in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra on Wednesday morning, officials said. The incident took place in the Malpura police station area when the bus was en route to Panna in Madhya Pradesh from Gurgaon in Haryana, according to police. Additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said the bus driver, staff and passengers are safe.

Senior superintendent of police, Agra, Babloo Kumar, who called the finance-related hijacking “audacious”, said around 10:30 pm, eight-nine young men in two SUVs intercepted the bus near Dakshin bypass. They claimed they were from the company that had financed the bus and asked the driver to get down. When he ignored them, “the men in SUVs chased and overtook the bus, got into it and forcibly brought down the driver and the conductor. They told the passengers to not scream and assured them that no harm will be done to them.”

He said the driver and the conductor of the bus were taken in one of the SUVs and dropped off in Kuberpur area on the highway around 4 am after which they approached the local police for help. “The finance company had illegally seized the bus. The driver, staff and passengers are safe. The bus owner died yesterday (Tuesday) and his son is conducting the last rites,” he said in a statement that did not mention the whereabouts of the bus.