UP: Truck owner set on fire for non-payment of installment

VARANASI: A truck owner and driver Satyaprakash Rai (51) of Azamgarh district was allegedly set on fire by the collection agents of a financier in Ghanshyampur area under the limits of Badlapur police station in Jaunpur district on Wednesday afternoon.
Showing courage the local natives caught two of such agents while two others managed to escape in their car. SO Badlapur Srijesh Yadav said that two persons were under police custody while Rai has been admitted to district hospital. Further investigation in this case is in progress, he added.
Rai’s son Shyamanand, who accompanied his father on truck said that they were returning to Azamgarh after loading concrete in Reeva in Madhya Pradesh. He alleged that when their truck was passing through Badlapur some car borne persons intercepted them and after posing them as agents of financier they sought reason for not paying the monthly installment of the loan taken by Rai to buy the truck for the past five months.
He said that as they mentioned the provision of relaxations given by the government in repaying the installments during Covid-19 epidemic period and also their worsened financial condition the agents asked them to go. However, he alleged, the agents intercepted their truck again when it was passing through Ghanshyampur area. He said that he was staying inside the cabin and his father was talking to those agents behind the vehicle when he heard the cries of his father.
Shyamanand said, when he reached there he saw that his father had been torched. “I brought a blanket from the truck’s cabin to save my father while local natives started chasing those agents when they tried to board their car to escape. Two of them were caught and handed over to police by local natives while the other two managed to escape in their car”, said Shyamanand.
Rai was initially rushed to a local hospital but in view of his deteriorating condition doctors referred him to district hospital. SO Badlapur said that both agents caught by local natives were taken under custody and further investigation in this case has been started.