Rajiv Kumar, 27, who works for Kuldeep Travels, Krishna Nagar, told police he was sleeping inside the bus when, about 12.30 am, four men in their twenties started banging on the door.

“When I asked them why, they started threatening me,” Kumar said. “They kept banging on the door and windows and finally cut out the panes of the driver’s window and got inside.” He said three men tied and gagged him. The fourth started the bus and drove it towards Faridabad. On the way they removed his clothes and threw him out.

A police patrol found Kumar lying on the roadside near Shikri village. The policemen gave him some clothes and sent him back to Delhi in an auto-rickshaw. He reached Krishna Nagar Police Station and his employer, Kuldeep Handa, was called.

In his complaint, Handa told police the bus was parked on a lot outside his travel agency, Kuldeep Travels, near Solan cinema on National Highway 27. He said the white, air-conditioned Tata omnibus could seat 35 passengers. It had just returned from a trip to Vaishno Devi.

“Starting a bus without a key is quite easy,” Handa said. “It can be done even with a screwdriver.”