Opposition leader blames CPI(M) for cooperative bank depositor’s suspected death by suicide

V.D. Satheesan blames CPI(M) for depositor's suicide due to bank mismanagement and misuse of power in Kerala.

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan held the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] responsible for the death by suspected suicide of Mulangassery Sabu, a depositor, in front of the party-controlled Rural Development Cooperative Society Bank at Kattappana in Idukki district recently.

In a statement here, Mr. Satheesan said that Sabu, a small-scale trader, had invested an estimated ₹25 lakhs of his life savings in the bank.

Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M) apparatchiks who controlled the bank repeatedly stonewalled Sabu’s attempts to withdraw a part of his savings for his wife’s treatment. 

He said that Sabu had said in the latter’s suicide note that the bank officials insulted him despite entreaties to release the money.

Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M) had used the government machinery to wrest the bank’s control from the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) administration. 

He said the CPI(M) leaders later issued loans without any mortgage or criteria to their relatives, friends, and party sympathisers, causing the bank to fall into financial ruin. 

Mr. Satheesan said the pattern was the same in CPI(M)-controlled cooperative banks across the State, including the Karuvannoor Cooperative Bank in Thrissur.