Chennai
Official sources said Ramkumar (40), a resident of Pullur village panchayat in Vaniyambadi taluk, committed suicide on Friday night. Inquiries revealed that he had been forced to take the extreme step as he was unable to get back Rs 7 lakh, along with interest, that he was owed by two friends, Mohan and Santosh. He had loaned them the money sometime back.
Trouble started when his relatives went to the Thimmampet police to register a complaint. The latter refused to accept it, stating that the house was not under their jurisdiction and came within limits of the AP border. When distraught relatives approached the Kuppam (AP) police later, they, in turn, claimed that the village was in Tamil Nadu, hence a complaint would have to be filed there. Even when Ramkumar’s kin demanded that the local Village Administrative Officer (VAO) measure the land to find out on which side of the border the dead man’s house was located, he refused to oblige. However, the VAO from AP’s Kankundi village arrived on the spot early on Saturday, measured the land and proved that Ramkumar’s house was within TN limits.
However, despite the relatives having produced local body tax receipts issued by the village and though the residence was a Rs 2.50 lakh green house allotted under Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s special scheme, the local VAO still refused to budge.
Meanwhile, the AP police, to resolve the matter, took away the body for post-mortem at the Kuppam hospital and asked the relatives to come to their police station.
But sources said, once revenue officials realised that the incident could blow up into a major scandal, they went into damage control mode and started pleading with the press not to publish/telecast the issue.
When last heard, officials were allegedly telling relatives that they would ensure Ramkumar’s body was brought back to Pillur from the AP side.
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