Vaikom: Three persons took their own lives across Kerala on Thursday, allegedly following the high-handedness of the authorities. All of them led productive lives and were the breadwinners of their families.
Attachment notice
The first incident was reported from Vaikom in Kottayam district, where T P Karthikeyan (61) was found hanging soon after officials from a service cooperative society from where he had availed a loan and defaulted on repayments arrived at his house to serve an attachment notice.
Karthikeyan, of Thayyil at Vakkethara, Thottakam, was an autorickshaw driver and also managed a teashop near his house. In 2014, he had taken a loan of Rs 7 lakh from the Thottakam Service Cooperative Society for which his house and the 14-cent plot on which it was situated was offered as collateral.
In 2019, even though the term of the loan ended, Karthikeyan could not repay the principal and interest. Subsequently, in 2022, the cooperative society initiated attachment procedures. According to officials, Karthikeyan owed the society an amount of Rs 16.90 lakh.
Officials claimed that they had issued a notice to Karthikeyan regarding measurement of his land as part of attachment procedures. However, Karthikeyan did not respond to the notice, they said.
At 12.45 pm on Thursday, the cooperative society officials reached Karthikeyan’s house, assessed the area of the property and installed survey stones.
Sometime after the society officials left, Karthikeyan allegedly committed suicide by hanging inside his house.
Karthikeyan is survived by wife Meera, daughter Aswathy and son-in-law Anoop.
Frequent interrogation
The second suicide took place at Ambalavayal in Wayanad district and the victim, Harikumar (56), was an indirect victim of the intrusion of wild animals into areas of human habitation.
It was Harikumar, a resident of Kuzhivila, Padiparambu and a farmer, who had informed the Forest Department about a dead tiger in a field recently.
After the incident, Harikumar was questioned by Forest Department officials several times and was also alleged threatened by them. “Harikumar sank into despair following the frequent interrogation by Forest officials. He also developed mental stress and was filled with dread,” said his wife Usha.
Harikumar too was found hanging on Thursday morning.
Denial of pay
In the third tragedy, E S Bijumon (49) a Literacy Mission Block Nodal Coordinator who has won the President’s award for the best literacy worker, killed himself at Pathanapuram in Kollam district.
According to his relatives, Bijumon was driven to suicide after he was depressed on being denied his payment for the last six months.
