The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government following the reports of suicide of a farmer when loan recovery agents belonging to a private finance company seized his tractor because he failed to pay the monthly installment.

In its notice, the commission pointed out that along with the agents, the police too had beaten up 26-year-old Arumugam to recover the Rs.2 lakhs pending dues. Notices have also been issued to the Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, to confirm, within two weeks, if the facts stated in the report are true.

Arumugam had borrowed Rs.7 lakhs from a finance company for buying a tractor. He had already repaid Rs.5 lakhs. Depressed over the verbal abuse and beatings that he was subjected to by the recovery agents and the police, he consumed poison and died at the Keezhapavur Primary Health Centre. Less than a week ago, a farmer in Tanjavur was beaten up badly by the recovery agents for not repaying the loan he had borrowed in order to buy a tractor.

Blaming the reluctance of the banks for the farmers’ seeking loans from private lenders, the commission said that if the incident was true, it was a gross violation of human rights of farmers in Tamil Nadu.