Pregnant woman 'crushed to death' by loan recovery agents for £1,300 in India

A 27-year-old pregnant woman was crushed to death allegedly by the recovery agent of a finance company in the Indian state of Jharkhand on Thursday.

The incident took place in the Hazaribagh district of the state when the agents from Mahindra Finance went to seize the tractor owned by her father, Mithilesh Kumar Mehta.

Mahindra Finance is a leading finance company in the country. And the specially-abled farmer had taken a loan from the firm to buy a tractor in 2018.

He was supposed to pay it back in 44 instalments of Rs 14,300 (about £157) each. However, he could not pay the money for six months, after which the company started threatening the farmer.

On Thursday, the purported employees of the finance company reached Mehta's house to seize the tractor. His daughter tried to stop them, but they did not listen and took the tractor away.

According to local media reports, Mehta and his daughter followed the agents on a bike and caught up with them in a nearby village. They tried to reason with the employees but to no avail. The father and daughter were threatened with fatal "consequences."

"At one place, the farmer and his daughter confronted them and an argument broke out, after which the woman was mowed down twice by a vehicle and the accused ran away," a police officer told The Indian Express.

The woman was rushed to a hospital in the state capital, Ranchi, where she was declared dead by the doctors. The police have registered a murder case and an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Meanwhile, Mahindra Group's chief executive, Anish Shah, has put the blame on third-party collection agencies.

"We will investigate this incident from all aspects and will also undertake an examination of the practice of using third-party collection agencies that have been in existence," he said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Shah also promised to extend all kinds of support to the family. But the woman's father has asked for nothing less than "hanging" for those responsible for the death of his daughter.

"I do not want anything, neither compensation nor any benefit from the government. I only seek justice for my daughter and it should not be less than hanging the culprits," Mehta told news agency PTI.