As banks and ATMs continued to be crowded by harried Delhiites, a 49-year-old man died after he collapsed while standing in queue outside a bank to exchange old high-value currency notes for new ones in South-west Delhi’s Najafgarh area on Monday.
The deceased identified as Satish Sharma, a resident of Uttam Nagar, was waiting for his turn to deposit cash outside the Oriental Bank of Commerce, on Najafgarh road when he fell down, said police officials, adding that his friends were also with him in the queue and they called up the Police Control Room (PCR).
“The man fainted around 2.40 pm while he was in queue outside bank. He was rushed to Mata Chanan Devi hospital in PCR van where he was declared brought dead,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, south-west district, Surender Kumar.
“The man was brought dead to the hospital. Police said he collapsed in the queue. The cause of his death can be ascertained only after post-mortem,” Dr AC Shukla, Medical Superitendent of Mata Chanan Devi hospital.
It may be recalled that last Wednesday, a resident of Old Delhi, had died after he allegedly suffered cardiac arrest while standing in line for over eight hours outside a bank branch in lal Kuan.
It has been 13 days since the demonetisation, and queues outside banks and ATMs have reduced to some percentage but Delhiites are still faced with problems while depositing and withdrawing money from banks and ATMs.
In many areas, people ran from one ATM to another, with a few managing to withdraw while the rest left dejected as machines emptied out before their turn. At places, queues formed up within minutes of news spreading word of mouth that cash was being dispensed at a particular ATM.