Farmer In Tamil Nadu Died After Being Unable To Withdraw Funds From His Bank Account

On Friday, a 53-year-old farmer from Kullampalayam hamlet in Tiruppur died in a private hospital after the nationalised bank froze his savings account without warning for defaulting on a crop loan of Rs 75,000 taken out by his father.

As per reports, R Kanagaraj owned approximately five acres of land in Kullampalayam hamlet, near Vavipalayam in Tirupur. He lived with his wife and two daughters.

Kanagaraj had gone through kidney transplantation six years ago and was on dialysis. Kanagaraj that he had Rs 1.5 lakh in his frozen account.

Kanagaraj's father, Rangasamy, is believed to have taken out a Rs 75,000 crop loan from a nationalised bank in Kethanur using the latter's account in 2014. Kanagaraj acted as guarantor for his father's debt when Rangasamy passed away in 2017.

His brother R Narayanasamy, 56 years old, stated that his brother had promised the bank that he would repay his father's loan in installments. However, due to medical bills for his dialysis, he was unable to repay the loan, which led to Covid-induced lockdown.

According to Narayanasamy, Kanagaraj's account was recently stopped without providing any warnings by the bank. He went to the branch after his account was frozen and asked for it to be reactivated by providing his medical documents.

Meanwhile, the financial authorities, on the other hand, did not comply.

Narayanasamy also expressed that Kanagaraj was in mental pain after this occurrence and was admitted to a private hospital in Coimbatore in June.

NSP Vetri, the Katchi Saarpatra Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam's working president, said that they went to the branch to reactivate Kangaraj's account after he was admitted to the hospital. Sundaramoorthy, the bank's manager, had promised to do so after we threatened to conduct a protest in front of the branch.

He claimed Kanagaraj's family was unable to withdraw funds from his account despite multiple requests to the bank to reactivate it.

Alexander T, Tiruppur's Lead District Manager, stated, when he called the bank in question, it was assured that Kanagaraj's account had been unfrozen. After a few farmers association members met with the branch manager, the decision was made. It's possible that the money hasn't been withdrawn.

Alexander stated that the concerned bank officials have been ordered to see what they can do right immediately to allow the kin to access the funds.

S Vineeth, the Tiruppur District Collector said that he would investigate the matter.