For the dozing passengers of the bus, the events appeared to be taken straight from a Bollywood action thriller.
Three persons stormed into the bus at around eleven in the night, overpowered the driver and informed the passengers that they were taking control of the vehicle. The passengers were assured that they would not be harmed and would be sent to their respective destinations.
The 'hijackers' kept their promise.
However, it was later revealed that the 'hijackers' were in fact agents of a finance company, which had given a loan to the bus owner, and that they had 'seized' the vehicle as the owner had failed to pay the installments.
The bus, which began its journey from Gurugram in Haryana to Pnna in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday with 34 passengers, was taken over by the agents of the finance company near Agra around 11 in the night.
The bus was taken to Jhansi, where the passengers disembarked and boarded another bus to their destinations, police sources said.
As a search was launched, the bus was found in the Balrai area in Etawah district, about 250 kilometres from here, on Wednesday morning, sources said.
According to sources, the owner of the bus, a resident of Gwalior town in Madhya Pradesh, had died on Tuesday from Covid-19. The family members denied that they had not paid the installments.
Police said that all the passengers had reached their destinations safely. A case has been lodged against the finance company and the investigations are on.