Media organizations are being blamed for being reckless by the family of a 57-year-old head cashier of the Currency Management Branch, State Bank of Mysore in Bengaluru after he allegedly killed himself by hanging at his Vivek Nagar home. Several allegedly false reports had emerged stating that he was under investigation for laundering black money to new notes.
According to a family member, G Raviraj lived with his wife and two children in Vivek Nagar. On Wednesday morning, he went for his morning walk and went directly to his study after up on returning, The Hindu reported.
When his wife did not see him for a long time, she checked all the rooms and found him hanging from the fan in the study, the report adds.
He was taken to St Philomena Hospital where he was declared brought dead. His body was shifted to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital for the post-mortem procedure, the report adds.
A report by Times of India stated that certain TV channels had reported that Raviraj was being investigated by the CBI for misappropriation of Rs 20 lakh in Rs 2,000 denomination notes.
A report by The Hindu stated that Raviraj was in-charge of transferring currency to other branches. He had recently taken Rs 40 lakh of new currency notes in Rs 2,000 denomination to deposit it in the Basavanagar Branch.
The report also said that Raviraj did not end up depositing it but in turn redeposited the Rs 40 lakh in the Currency Management Branch where he worked. However, of the Rs 40 lakh, Rs 20 lakh were in demonetized notes, it said.
Raviraj had not left a suicide note. The Vivek Nagar police had launched an inquiry into the matter and questioned Raviraj’s colleagues on Thursday and the bank officials and the branch’s Assistant General Manager gave their written statements, a report by TOI states.
“There was no internal departmental enquiry against Raviraj or any others in the currency exchange issue. News of CBI officials visiting our branch and questioning Raviraj are also false. We are shocked over the incident and still trying to digest the fact that Raviraj, who had worked with us for 25 years, is no more,” the contents of the statement was published in TOI.
The beleaguered family has now decided to sue TV channels and online news portals for falsely implicating him of committing fraud. The family claims that the news reports forced him to commit suicide, Raviraj’s brother told TOI.