‘Harassed’ for loan repayment, man dies by suicide; moneylender booked

On Saturday, Amrit’s son Pintu spotted his father’s body from a pond in Unjha village, around 12 hours after he had gone missing.

A moneylender has been booked on charges of abetment after a 52-year-old businessman died by suicide in Unjha, Mehsana, Saturday allegedly after he was harassed for repayment of a Rs 2 lakh loan and its interest, police said.

According to the police, Amrit Patel, a resident of Chandpad, was a paan parlour-cum-tea shop owner located adjacent to Unjha highway, had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh for his shop at the interest rate of 15 per cent per month from one Anil Patel, a resident of Umiya Nagar.

On Saturday, Amrit’s son Pintu spotted his father’s body from a pond in Unjha village, around 12 hours after he had gone missing. A purported two-page suicide note was recovered by the police from Amrit’s residence.

“I run a paan parlour in Ahmedabad. On Saturday morning, my mother called me to inform me that my father had not come home from his shop since Friday night. I started looking for my father on my motorcycle. Around 10 am, I found his slippers near a pond in Unjha village and alerted the police and fire department, who then retrieved his body,” Pintu submitted in his police complaint.

According to the complainant, Amrit had taken a loan of Rs 2 lakh from Anil Patel at 15 per cent interest per month. “As he was unable to pay the interest for a few months, Anil Patel used to come to our house and abuse him. Once he had also abducted my father and took him to an unknown building after which he got scared. He was under a lot of stress recently,” the complainant said.

A police officer at Unjha police station said the alleged suicide note was handed over to them by Pintu, who claimed to have found it at their residence in Unjha.

“We have sent the letter to the forensic science laboratory for further tests. Meanwhile, we have booked Anil Patel under Indian Penal Code sections 306 for abetting suicide, 341 for wrongful restraint, 504 for intentional insult, and 506 for criminal intimidation along with sections of the Gujarat Money Lenders Act. The accused will be arrested soon,” the officer said.

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