A farmer in Tiruvannamalai district died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack following an alleged scuffle with loan recovery agents of a bank from which he had availed of a loan to buy a tractor.
Police said R. Gnanasekaran, 55, of Bondhai village in Tiruvannamalai district, had taken a loan four years ago to buy a tractor and had repaid a part of it. Due to drought and poor yields, he could not pay further instalments for the past two years.
Two persons claiming to be the bank’s loan recovery agents approached Gnanasekaran and sought to seize his tractor for non-payment.
Following an argument and an alleged scuffle, Gnanasekaran suffered a heart attack.
He was initially admitted to Thanipadi primary health centre from where he was transferred to the Tiruvannamalai medical college. Gnanasekaran died on Saturday. Police said a case of suspicious death has been registered and investigations are on.
CPI (M) State general secretary G. Ramakrishnan said Gnanasekaran was selling sugar cane from his land to a nearby sugar factory.
‘Factory owed him’
“The factory had to pay him dues of ₹3 lakh, but had refused to pay it,” he alleged.
Mr. Ramakrishnan said it was unethical on the part of the bank to have attacked Gnanasekaran for non-payment of dues. “The bank officials and the goondas responsible for his death should be punished,” he said.
PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss slammed the public sector bank’s actions that led to the death of the farmer.
“It has become a fashion for banks to send goondas to collect loan dues from farmers and students,” he said in a statement and listed out a number of instances in the recent past wherein such action by banks led to suicides of farmers and students.
He added that the RBI norms on collecting loan dues were not being followed.
Both Dr. Anbumani and Mr. Ramakrishnan asked the State government to pay a compensation of ₹25 lakh to the family of Gnanasekaran.
