Family Commits Mass Suicide after Harassment by Money lender in Nawada
CPIML has expressed anguish on an incident of mass suicides on 11 November in Nawada of Bihar. Kedarnath Gupta and five of his family members committed suicide after falling into debt trap and harassment by the money lenders. They took poison in their rented house in Nawada, five people including Kedarnath Gupta, his wife and three children died while one child is being treated in the hospital. Kedarnath Gupta left a suicide note naming all the money lenders who had been harassing him and his family. The note states that those usurers had taken 2-3 times more money than what was the initial amount. The CPIML has condemned the role of the district administration for not taking any stern action against the usurers. The party has demanded to lodge the case of murder against the money lenders whose names have been given in the suicide note.
Comrade Kunal, state secretary of party in Bihar, has expressed worry on the rising incidents of debt trap suicides in the state which could have been prevented if there is some governmental mechanism of caring for the needy and providing direct loans to the poor. The government must immediately put a ban on private money lending (usury) going on unabated because of increasing economic hardships.
A CPIML team led by Arwal MLA Mahanand Singh and AIPWA leader Rita Barnwal reached Nawada on 11 November. Party has demanded arrest of all the money lenders involved, a compensation of at least Rs. 50 lakhs to the victim family and ensuring safety of remaining family members, a high level inquiry into this incident of mass suicides, and complete ban of private money lending.
Kedarnath originally hailed from the Amawan village of Rajauli block and he was running a small shop selling fruits and Dosa in Nawada town. He had been living in a rented house for the last 30 years in the New Area locality. He has two married and three unmarried daughters and two sons. One son is married and works in Delhi. Kedarnath had taken debt on the occasion of the marriage of his second daughter. The money lenders are Manish Singh, Vikas Singh, Tuntun Singh, Pankaj Singh and Ranjit Singh. They have been extorting money for 4-5 years on exorbitant interest rates which was impossible for the Kedarnath to repay. Hence the victim had to face regular harassment and abuse in spite of the fact that he had paid many times the amount of the original sum. The usurers even went to the extent of sexual harassment and rape threats to his daughters. Kedarnath was insecure, unsafe and felt unable to save his daughters. And they decided to finish off the lives of all family members. They went two kilometres far from the town and took tablets of pesticide Sulfas.
The money lenders involved in this case are known in the area for their brutalities, beatings of poor people, sexual harassment, seizing the household belongings and all kinds of humiliations. The locality still lives under the terror of these criminals.
On 12 November the business community in Nawada organised a bandh against this atrocity.
The CPIML organised district wide protests against these suicides on 13 November.
