A 53-year-old farmer from Kullapalayam village in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu succumbed to his kidney ailments in a private hospital after he could not withdraw money from his savings account, reported The New Indian Express. A nationalised bank froze Kanagaraj's account without prior notice for defaulting on a crop loan worth ₹ 75, 000. In 2014, Kanagaraj's father Rangasamy father had taken a crop loan using the former's account. After Rangasamy died in 2017, the surety of returning the debt fell on Kanagaraj's shoulders.
'Requested Bank To Unfreeze Account'
Kanagaraj underwent a kidney transplant six years ago and had been on dialysis. He had ₹ 1.5 lakh in his frozen account. Kanagaraj's brother R. Narayanasamy said that his brother had assured the bank that he would settle the loan, taken by their father, in installments. However, he was unable to do so due to his increased medical expenses for his dialysis, followed by the COVID induced lockdown. Narayanasamy claimed that the bank had frozen Kanagaraj's account without prior notice. He added, "After his account was frozen, he went to the bank and pleaded to reactivate it, showing his medical documents, but the bank did not oblige." After this, Kanagaraj was reportedly in mental agony and was admitted to a private hospital in Coimbatore.
NSP Vetri, the working President of Katchi Saarpatra Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, said that Kanagaraj's family could not withdraw money from the account even after several requests to the bank to reactivate it.
However, Lead District Manager of Tiruppur, Alexander T said that when he contacted the concerned bank, he was told that they had released the freeze on Kanagaraj's account after a few members from the farmer's association met the branch manager. "The concerned authorities have been directed to check what they could do now so that the kin could access the money," he said.
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