Three held in Agra for stealing money from accident victim

The matter came to light after a 47-second purported video of the incident, which took place on January 9, went viral on social media, police said on Sunday.

Agra: Three men have been arrested for stealing money from the bag of a businessman as he lay on the roadside following a fatal accident here, police said on Sunday.

The matter came to light after a 47-second purported video of the incident, which took place on January 9, went viral on social media, they said.

The victim Dharmendra Gupta (46), an Agra-based businessman, was declared brought dead when he was taken to SN Medical College and Hospital, the police said.

Two others were also killed in the accident that took place after a speeding canter hit several vehicles on the National Highway-19 near Sikandra here, the police said.

Some persons who were injured in the crash were taken to SN Medical College and Hospital, they said.

Meanwhile, three passersby spotted cash lying around at the accident spot and started collecting it. The act was filmed by some persons who later posted the video on social media, they added.

The trio told others present at the spot that they were going to the police to submit the collected cash and the victim's bag but escaped midway, the officials said.

After the video surfaced online, family members of Dharmendra, a resident of the Balkeshwar area here, claimed the cash belonged to him, the police said.

Dharmendra's brother Mahendra said on the day of the accident, the deceased had told him he would travel home from Mathura with cash worth Rs 1.5 lakh, they said.

He spoke to Mahendra over phone before starting from Mathura and was supposed to reach home in one hour, the police said.

After the businessman's family members could not trace him for several hours and also could not reach him over phone, they started looking for him. They later found that Dharmendra met with an accident and was taken to SN Medical College and Hospital, where he was brought declared dead, they added.

Hariparwat ACP Aditya Kumar Singh said the three accused -- Akash, Praveen and Rakesh -- were arrested after they were spotted stealing cash in the video of the incident.

Around Rs 9,000 cash, an ATM card and Aadhaar card and a daily record diary belonging to Mahendra have been recovered from the trio, the ACP said.