The accused of Agra bus hijacking case was arrested following police encounter in the early hours of Thursday. Agra SSP Babloo Kumar told media that the main accused Pradeep Gupta has been arrested after an encounter with the police. He was on motorcycle and was traced in Fatehabad area in Agra district. In the encounter that followed, Gupta suffered a bullet injury in his leg. Gupta was taken to hospital for leg injury treatment. The CCTV footage installed at toll plaza helped to identify him.
On Wednesday, some people had hijacked a bus with 34 passengers aboard in Agra district when it was heading to Panna district in Madhya Pradesh. The bus was hijacked on New Southern Bye Pass on Wednesday late night. The driver, conductor and helper were asked to get down from the bus and passengers were asked to get into another bus. The hijacked bus was later traced near a dhaba in Etawah district.
“We have yet to recover the SUV Gupta was travelling in,” SSP Kumar said. The Malpura police station of Agra had registered case against Pradeep Gupta and his five associates for hijacking the bus. Monetary dispute is stated to be the reason behind bus hijack. The bus was owned
by Pawan Arora from Gwalior. It is said that Pradeep Gupta was involved in a monetary dispute with Ashok Arora, the father of Pawan Arora. Ashok Arora died of Covid-19 and hijacking was planned by Pradeep Gupta to recover the outstanding money from Arora.
The family members of Ashok Arora identified Pradeep Gupta from CCTV footage at a toll plaza. He was in the SUV car used by the alleged hijackers. Sources said Pradeep Gupta was a middleman at Etawah RTO who offered loans.
