Canara bank manager commits suicide, ‘due to harassment by seniors’

Bengaluru: Due to alleged harassment by seniors over recovery of loans, a 57-year-old Canara bank manager Sudheendra Murthy hanged himself from the ceiling fan of his house after performing puja on Wednesday.

Sudhindra resident of Shanthi Apartment near Ragigudda. He leaves behind wife Lakshmi S and daughters Soumya S and Divya S.

Murthy’s promotion was withheld by his seniors who were pressuring him to recover the loans. He was depressed and told his family that many of the people who had taken loans during his tenure had turned defaulters and were refusing to repay.

He went into depression and was under medication. His suicide note gave details of how his seniors allegedly harassed him for not recovering loans.

On Wednesday morning, Murthy’s daughter opened the bedroom door and found Murthy hanging from the fan. The Tilak Nagar police shifted the body to Victoria Hospital for post-mortem.

Murthy has attempted suicide last year for the same reason but he was saved by the family members, his wife Lakshmi said.

“My husband led a tense life; he would say loan recovery is eating into his happiness. He would get constant calls from his seniors, seeking explanations on loan recovery issues. The seniors would direct my husband to grant loans to persons recommended by them. But when it came to recovery, only my husband took the blame.”

The police have found a suicide note stating that “I am harassed by seniors over loan recovery issues. Should I visit each loan holder’s house and beg for instalments? I should have been assistant general manager by now. But my seniors spiked my hopes of promotion saying I was not recovering loans properly,” Murthy wrote in Kannada.