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Pregnant woman run over by loan recovery agents: Jharkhand Police
The incident took place in Ichak area of Hazaribag on Thursday and police identified the deceased as 27-year-old Monica, the daughter of farmer Mithlesh Mehta
A pregnant woman was run over in Hazaribag district of Jharkhand allegedly by loan recovery agents while she was protesting as they confiscated the family’s tractor for defaulting on payment, a senior police officer said on Friday.
The incident took place in Ichak area of Hazaribag on Thursday and police identified the deceased as 27-year-old Monica, the daughter of farmer Mithlesh Mehta.
“We have received a complaint from the family. We are in the process of registering an FIR in the case. The family has given the name of one Roshan Singh and others. After initial investigations, we have identified those behind the incident. We are booking the accused under section 302 of IPC (murder). We will arrest them soon,” said Hazaribag superintendent of police Manoj Ratan Chothe.
He said that according to the family’s complaint, the accused ran over Monica in a Wagon R car.
“The woman lay on the road in protest against the agents taking the tractor away. As crowd started building up, the group sped away in the car and ran over the woman in the process. They left the tractor behind,” added the SP.
He said Mehta had not made payments for the Mahindra tractor from six months and the dues amounted to ₹1.2 lakh. The SP said they would also question the finance and tractor firm authorities as to why they did not seek help from police for confiscating the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Mahindra group issued a statement on the incident saying it would provide all possible support to authorities during the investigation.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the Hazaribag incident. A human tragedy has occurred. We will investigate this incident from all aspects and will also undertake an examination of the practice of using third-party collection agencies, that has been in existence. We will extend all possible support to the authorities during the investigation into this tragic incident and, above all, we stand with the family in this moment of grief,” said Anish Shah, MD & CEO, Mahindra Group, in the statement.
