19-year-old’s suicide: Minister blames Sarfaesi Act for Kerala Bank’s action

Promises detailed probe into girl’s death, parents protest before bank’s Patharam branch
Abhirami
Abhirami

KOLLAM: The parents of 19-year-old Abhirami, who died by suicide on Tuesday after Kerala Bank officials pasted the attachment notice in front of her house at Sooranad in Kollam district, staged a protest in front of the bank’s Patharam branch on Wednesday. At the same time, Kerala Bank and the state government blamed the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, 2002, for the bank employees’ action.

The girl’s parents and others staged the protest by taking the ambulance, in which Abhirami’s body was brought after postmortem examination, to the bank branch. The body was cremated later. Amid mounting criticism against the government and Kerala Bank, Minister for Cooperation V N Vasavan said the incident was unfortunate. However, a comprehensive investigation will be carried out to bring out the truth in the light of reports that the girl had been under depression following her cousin’s recent death. He clarified that Kerala Bank operates as per the RBI norms and as per the Sarfaesi Act, the bank issued the recovery notice against the property owner. He further stated that the CPM government has always been against the Sarfaesi Act.

Meanwhile, the opposition, which has been opposing Kerala Bank since its inception, targeted the LDF government. Congress state president and MP K Sudhakaran said Abhirami is yet another victim of the state government’s “crooked policies” in the cooperation sector. The incident is evidence of the state government’s failure to formulate a clear-cut policy for the people who are still suffering owing to the economic crunch caused by the pandemic, he said.

“Despite the people’s hardship, the LDF government has decided to implement the Sarfaesi Act and now that decision is harming the people,” Sudhakaran said. He also demanded a decent compensation for Abhirami’s family.

Kerala Bank president Gopi Kottamurikkal, however, defended the bank’s action to attach Abhirami’s house, who took her life allegedly after receiving the recovery notice from the bank officials. He said that a thorough investigation would be carried out to ascertain whether the bank’s action had any role in the girl’s suicide.

‘’The bank has had no personal issue with the family. It took this step just as a recovery measure. There will be a detailed investigation into whether there was any mistake on the part of the officials,” he said.

STOP ALL ATTACHMENT PROCEEDINGS, SATHEESAN TELLS CM
T’Puram:
Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan has sent a letter to the chief minister and cooperation minister urging them to stop all attachment proceedings being initiated by the Kerala Bank and other financial institutions. State Congress president K Sudhakaran also came out against the Kerala Bank. Satheesan recalled that Abhirami’s father Ajikumar had lost his job in the Middle East during the pandemic. He maintained that if Ajikumar was given more time to repay the loan, the family would have repaid it. In his letter to the chief minister, Satheesan urged that banks should show humaneness to loan defaulters. “Steps should be taken to ensure that much-publicised Kerala’s own bank (Kerala Bank), and other financial institutions stopped the attachment process at least for the time being,” said Satheesan.

(Suicide helplines -- Maithri, Cochin: +91 239 6272; Sumaitri, New Delhi: 2338 9090, Sneha, Chennai: 91-44-2464 0050, 91-44-2464 0060, Aasra, Mumbai: 9820466726, Fortis MentalHealth: 8376804102)

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com