Abohar, Punjab:
A farmer who was promised a 50-crore loan by bank managers has committed suicide right outside the bank. In his suicide note, Vinod Kumar Yadav, said two senior bank officials took a three crore bribe from him, but then did not deliver the loan they had promised.
Mr Yadav drank poison at the local branch of Punjab Krishi Vikas Bank, in the border town of Abohar in Punjab. He died a few hours later in hospital.
His family alleges that over the last three years, he sold his land and borrowed money from friends and relatives because two bank officials had asked for 10 per cent of the loan he wanted as a bribe. That worked out to five crores - and Mr Yadav's family says he handed over three crores in different installments to Ravindra Pal Sekho and Neeraj Kumar Aneja. Both bank employees are now missing.
The chairman of the bank, Sukhdarshan Singh Maraar, says that the bank will cooperate with the police investigation, but there is no record of Mr Yadav's application for a loan worth 50 crores. He added that Mr Yadav had already availed of three smaller loans.
The police officials handling the case say they have begun scrutinizing Mr Yadav's accounts, and will also study bank records, but that the process will be a complex and lengthy one.