THOOTHUKUDI: The family of a retired Village Administrative Officer (VAO), who died by suicide recently over a 'Kandhuvatti' issue, urged Thoothukudi SP Albert John to arrest the money lender for abetting suicide and recover house documents pledged as the victim had repaid the principal amount several times.
The deceased P Rajagopal (74) of Authoor had been running a two-wheeler spare parts shop at Authoor commercial street since 2018. Rajagopal was found dead at his house on February 6, after being depressed for a few days.
According to a complaint submitted by his son Jeyaprakash to SP Alberth John, his father had borrowed Rs 38 lakh from money lender Subbaiah of the same area for launching the shop in 2018, by pledging the documents of his house.
In his death note, Rajagopal had mentioned that he had repaid over Rs 2.07 crore against the borrowed money as of January 1, but Subbaiah refused to return his house documents, and forced to take over the house on many occasions.
Subbaiah had allegedly issued threats and verbally abused Rajagopal on February 3 to hand over the house to him, which put his father in mental distress and pushed him to take the extreme steps, he said. He added that the death note has been in possession of the Authoor inspector.
Even though an FIR was registered mentioning Subbaiah for abetting suicide, the police had neither invoked relevant sections of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2003 nor initiated action against the suspect.
Subbaiah has been allegedly urging to withdraw the complaint stating that Kodiselvi is mentally ill. Jeyaprakash urged the SP to initiate action against Subbaiah for abetting suicide as per the provisions ofthe Exorbitant Interest Act and recover the land documents from his possession.