Five loan recovery agents allegedly crushed a Dalit farmer to death under a tractor in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district on Saturday after he failed to pay back an arrear on a loan, the Hindustan Times reported on Sunday.

Gyan Chandra of Bhauri village had taken a loan of Rs 5 lakh from a finance firm in 2015 to buy a tractor. By December 2017, the 45-year-old had paid back Rs 4 lakh. The company issued a recovery notice, though he deposited Rs 35,000 in the first week of January, Chandra’s wife Gyanwati said.

Chandra was working on his friend Raj Kishore’s field on Saturday when the agents came looking for him, Dainik Bhaskar reported. They asked the farmer to either pay the rest of the amount or hand the tractor over to them. Chandra promised to pay the remaining Rs 65,000 by the end of January, his brother Om Prakash said.

The agents did not agree and pulled him off the tractor and snatched the key. Chandra was holding on to the tractor’s bonnet when the agents started the vehicle. “Chandra’s hand slipped suddenly from the bonnet, and he came under the wheels of the tractor and died on the spot,” his brother said.

Om Prakash has lodged a complaint against the five agents, Assistant Superintendent of Police (Sitapur) Martand Prakash Singh said. The villagers held a demonstration and refused to send the body for autopsy, but called it off after senior police officers promised to take action against the accused.