Men steal mangoes and run towards their vehicles. (Screen grab from a video)

On Thursday morning, at a market in Delhi’s Shahdara district, passers-by “stole” mangoes worth Rs 20,000 from unattended crates. The video of the incident that took place in Jagat Puri shows dozens of men picking up mangoes from crates, and running away.

Some men, with helmets on, picked up the fruit and rushed towards their vehicles parked on the road, others filled their pockets with mangoes, while a few picked up the mangoes and threw the crates away. No FIR in the matter has been filed so far.

The Indian Express spoke to the fruit-seller, Chhotu (33), who said, “I was standing under a tree when a group of rickshaw pullers asked me to leave, as they wanted to park under the shade. At first, I didn’t agree, so they got angry. I ran away with my cart but couldn’t pick up all the baskets on the road.”

Minutes later, Chhotu said he saw people picking up the mangoes and running away with them. “All 12 mango crates were empty, it was fruit worth Rs 20,000 at least.”

Chhotu’s younger brother, Arif Khan, said the family lives near Krishna Nagar, and has been selling fruits and vegetables here for years. Khan said, “This year has been difficult for us anyway and getting good quality stock from the mandi has been tough for us. We somehow managed to get it but now Chhotu has lost all the mangoes… worth thousands of rupees. We are scared of rickshaw pullers, they were threatening violence. We do not want to file a complaint.”