Mumbai: A 51-year-old man, whose family has a deposit of over Rs 90 lakh with the troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Bank Cooperative (PMC) Bank, has died due to a heart attack.
A resident of suburban Oshiwara, Gulati had lost his job after the grounding of Jet Airways. He received a bigger blow earlier this month as he was unable to withdraw his life's saving of Rs 90 lakh from PMC bank following RBI’s restrictions.
On Monday evening, the 51-year-old is said to have suffered a heart attack as he was having dinner at home after attending a protest against the PMC Bank scam for about four hours outside the esplanade court.
Among his friend and neighbours who gathered in the Tarapore Garden building on Tuesday to pay their respect was the deceased's friend, Radhika Nair.
“He was a gem of a person. He was in dire need of money as he was not working. His wife is a homemaker and they had two school-going children to take care of, including one who needs constant medical treatment because of his autistic condition,” Nair said as fought back the tears.
She further added, “All his life savings was in the PMC Bank. He used to tell us how worried and stressed to manage day-to-day expenses and take care of his family without being able to withdraw money.”
He is survived by his wife Megha and two sons aged 18 and 10 years. Apart from his older son who is specially-abled, Gulati was also looking after his ailing parents who live in Bangalore.
“He would not talk about his situation much but we knew what he was going through. He lost his job and now the PMC crisis hit him. He used to go to all the protests and wait for some sort of positive news. He was patient but helpless. ” neighbour Sangeeta Khaitan, said.
Another PMC account holder Sachi Pestonji, an acquaintance of Gulati, warned that this may just be the beginning of tragedies.
“Today it is Gulati, tomorrow it could be a hundred others. The stress we are going through cannot be described. At this rate, this government will kill us all innocent tax-paying people with their horribly flawed economic measures.”
Another neighbour and a close friend of Gulati asked, “He lost his job for no fault of his, he died from no fault of his. When will the government pay for such atrocities and murders?”
The PMC Bank has been placed under "directions" by the RBI since last month, wherein depositors' withdrawals have been capped. The limits were increased to Rs 40,000 by the RBI on Monday, and the central bank said 77 per cent of the customers will be able to fully withdraw their deposits with this move.
Harried depositors of the bank, which has deposits of over Rs 11,000 crore, have been protesting across the city, and also forced Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to meet them last week when she was out to address a pre-election media conference here.
Four people, including promoters of realty firm HDIL to which the bank made the sour loans, and the lender's former chairman and ex-managing director have so far been arrested in connection with the alleged Rs 4,355 crore scam.
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