It has been three days since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, and people have been running helter-skelter to get their currency exchanged. In what turned out to be a Freaky Friday situation, two persons died while waiting to deposit their currencies, in Mumbai and in Thalaserry, Kerala.
In the first incident, a 73-year-old man collapsed and died while waiting in a long queue before a bank. He was one of many cash-strapped people in the country's financial capital and suburbs who rushed to ATM counters to withdraw cash to meet their day-to-day expenses. The deceased was identified as Vishwanath Vartak, who was standing in the queue of an SBI branch in Mulund in Mumbai’s eastern suburbs.
Vartak had been standing for hours in the queue to exchange Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes, sources said. Though he was rushed to hospital, he was declared brought dead, police said.
Meanwhile, a Kerala State Electricity Board employee who came to remit money to his account in the State Bank of Travancore branch at Thalaserry in Kerala on Friday fell down from the third floor of a building and died, said city police. The man was identified as 48-year-old Unni, a resident of Pinarayi, the hometown of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The police are, however, unable to ascertain whether it was an accident or a suicide. “From his bag, a sum of Rs 5.5 lakh was recovered,†said an officer on condition of anonymity. The police have taken possession of the bag.
The SBT office is located on the second floor of the building.
Hundreds who had thronged the bank were busy filling application forms to be submitted on the third floor of the building, which was unoccupied.
The police have not ruled out accidental death. They say Unni could have fallen over while moving around in the crowded building.