The victim’s family had repaid over Rs 2.34 lakh of the Rs 1.45 lakh borrowed. The money lender was asking for Rs 2 lakh more.
Chennai : A young woman and her two minor daughters, aged 4 and one-and-half-years, died while her husband was battling for life in an immolation bid at the Tirunelveli Collectorate in south Tamil Nadu on Monday in bid to escape from the clutches a usurious female moneylender.
During the weekly Grievance Redressal Day (held on Mondays), 28-year-old Esakkimuthu, a labourer, poured kerosene on wife Subbulakshmi, daughters Mathi Saranya and Akshaya and himself and lighted a match.
Onlookers helped but by the time the flames were doused, the victims had sustained around 75 per cent burns and taken in critical condition to the government hospital in Tirunelveli. In the evening, Subbulakshmi and the two girls succumbed.
“My brother had taken Rs 1.45 lakh loan from moneylender Muthulakshmi at exorbitant interest rates and had repaid over Rs 2.34 lakh. He submitted around six petitions to the collector, seeking to be rescued from her clutches but to no avail,” the victim’s brother Gopi said.
