Kerala Fisherman Dies By Suicide, Failed To Get Loan Documents: Cops

A fisherman allegedly died by suicide after his repeated attempts to secure documents from the Revenue Division Office for his loan failed.

The dead man, identified as Sajeevan (57), was from Malyankara in Ernakulam district.

According to the police, the body was found was found on the premises of his house on Thursday. "A suicide note was also found from the body during the inquest proceedings. When he produced the title deeds of his house as collateral in a bank for loan, it was found that the property was included as paddy land. Thereafter he approached the Village Office, Taluk Office and RDO several times during the last one and half years to convert his land title under the paddy land conversion scheme. Unable to get justice, he died by suicide after attending the RDO office in Fort Kochi," the police said.

In the meantime, his relatives and the opposition parties alleged that he blamed the Chief Minister and the government in the suicide note. But the police said that they are verifying it.

In a Facebook post, Kerala Revenue Minister K Rajan said that he directed the land revenue joint commissioner to inquire the incident and submit the report within one week.

Kerala Opposition leader VD Satheesan alleged red-tapism in government. He said, "What happened yesterday was very unfortunate. They are poor people who own only 4 cents of land. When they went to get a loan they knew that their land was recorded as a field. Its procedures are very complicated. The RDO office in Fort Kochi has hundreds of such cases pending. Its procedures are being expedited for large people. The CM had earlier said that every file is every life. There is a file lying there now. Similar issues will be raised again in the Assembly by us. Action must be taken against them. These are the sorrows of the poorest people. Let's see what the government has to say on the matter. This is red-tapism. Files are not moving forward."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)