Tirunelveli: Usury misery in south persists

Tirunelveli: Two years has rolled on since a usury victim, Isakkimuthu along with his wife and two children chose to end their lives by self-immolation at the Tirunelveli district collector's office here on October 23, 2017. But the district administration and the police seemed to have not taken serious the message sent by the gruesome death of Isakkimuthu's family, as the loan sharks in the district continue to prey on the borrowers in the district.

The latest being a painter, Aruldoss of Melakarungulam near Tirunelveli, who attempted to commit self immolation on Oct 14, 2019, along with his wife, Mariammal and three children, Esakkiraja, Suryaprakash and DHanalakshmi at the collector's office so as to escape the harassment of usurer, Krishnan of Kuruchi, Tirunelveli.

However on seeing the painter dousing himself and his wife and children with kerosene, the policemen present there acted swiftly and thwarted the suicide attempt.

Aruldoss, reportedly borrowed Rs 50,000 at ten per cent interest from Krishnan four years ago by pledging his land document, said that he had repaid Rs 2 lakh towards his loan. The usurer, Krishnan, however tallied the repaid amount for interest and demanded Rs 1.50 lakh to close the loan. On Thursday morning Krishnan was alleged to have attacked Aruldoss as the latter argued with him over the loan issue.

Hence to escape the usurer's harassment forever, Aruldoss took the extreme step of self-immolation along with his family, which however was thwarted by the policemen, who poured water on Aruldoss , his wife and children to wash out the kerosene and rushed them to hospital for check-up.

Though Aruldoss' suicide attempt at the premises of the district collector's office in Tirunelveli was not successful, "we cannot brush the incident as yet another one," said a official at the Tirunelveli district collector's office, who pleading anonymity blamed the district administration and police administration.
The officials who launched a hunt for loan-sharks immediately after the self immolation of Isakkimuthu's family two years ago, however lost direction amid public memory being short.

"Even the special helpline ('9629711194) against usury launched on October 24, 2017, immediately after the death of the four usury victims went dead," said the government officer at the Tirunelveli district collectorate here.