Plea to direct governments to pay Rs 1 crore to ryot’s family

By Express News Service  |   Published: 17th November 2017 02:17 AM  |  

CHENNAI: A public interest litigation has been filed in the Madras High Court for a directive to the State and Central governments to pay a compensation of `1 crore to the family of an agriculturist in  Tiruvannamalai district, who died after allegedly being assaulted by recovery agents of a nationalised bank on November 5 last.

The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, before whom the PIL from S Rajinikanth, president of TN Progressive Advocates Association, came up, ordered notice to the Secretary, Union Finance Ministry, Reserve Bank of India Governor and authorities of the State government, returnable by November 20.

The PIL also prayed for a directive to the State government to take stern action against those responsible for the death of the agriculturist Gnanasekaran (55).

The petitioner submitted that Gnanasekaran had obtained a loan of `5 lakh for purchasing a tractor from the Sathanur branch of SBI four years ago. He had returned `3 lakh. He could not repay the remaining `2 lakh for the past two years due to severe drought.

While so, recovery agents of the bank trespassed into his house on November 4 last, damaged household articles and assaulted him and his family members, including women. Gnanasekaran died the next day, the petitioner alleged.