The Centre’s demonetisation move claimed one more life in Maharashtra, as a 50-year-old employee of the State Bank of India (SBI) died of a heart attack at the bank’s Gandhi layout branch in Napgur on Friday afternoon.
Identifying the deceased as one Ramapanthulu Venkates Rajesh, the Nagpur police said that he was rushed to nearby Wockhardt Heart Hospital where he was declared dead by doctor.
Following the incident, the SBI declared a holiday for the branch. Rajesh’s colleagues at the bank branch said that he was under stress at ever since increased work on the bank staff since November 9, the day the decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes came into effect.
With Rajesh’s death, the total number of monetisation-related deaths has gone up to seven in the State and at least 35 across the country.
While a 73-year-old man suffered a heart attack and died at Mulund in nort-east Mumbain on November 11, a prematurely born baby boy had subsequently died after a Govandi-based lady doctor refused to admit him to her hospital on the ground that his parents had no hard cash to pay the hospital in the wake of demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.
On Tuesday, a 42-year old man Chhotelal Jaiswal had suffered a heart attack after waiting for over five hours in a queue in Kalwe suburb of Thane and later died in a hospital.
Three more demonetisation-related deaths were reported on Wednesday.
Tukaram Tanpure, a security guard employed at Rajgurunagar branch at Pune, died of heart attack, while he was on duty. There was a long queue of people in front of the bank branch waiting in queue to exchange or deposit old currency notes, when the incident happened.
While a senior citizen, identified as one Deepak Shah, collapsed and died after standing in a queue before a bank for over two hours on Wednesday morning in Bhayander town in Thane district, a 60-year old man Digamber Kasbe died later in the day at Nanded, died while waiting several hours to exchange old notes at a PSU bank.