Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students’ Association (AISA) have demanded action against Reliance Asset Reconstruction Company (RARC) officials for allegedly abetting the suicide of K. Lenin (23) here last week by pressurising him to repay his educational loan.
They also condemned State Bank of India for ‘selling’ the educational loan taken by students like Lenin to RARC and demanded that the contract between the two companies be immediately revoked.
K. Divya of AISA, who released a fact-finding report on the incident, said that Lenin, a Dalit, was the first person to attend college from his family. “His father, a mason, dreamt of making his son a Civil Engineer,” she said.
She said that despite finishing college two years back, Lenin could not find employment and RARC had recently started applying considerable pressure on him and his family to pay back the loan.
Filing a petition with the Collector, State president of SFI V. Mariappan said that Lenin was forced to take a loan as education had become expensive due to increased privatisation.
“SBI selling the loan to RARC itself is wrong. Moreover, RARC has used unfair means to recover the loan. While Lenin still had time to pay back the loan in instalments, RARC was calling him consistently for a month to pay it back in one instalment,” he alleged.
Both AISA and SFI demanded that RARC and its officials be booked by the police for abetment of suicide and adequate compensation be paid to Lenin’s family.
“Most importantly, State government should waive all educational loans immediately,” Mr. Mariappan also said.
