By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has reportedly cleared the loan liability of around ₹60 lakh owed by former Wayanad District Congress Committee (DCC) treasurer N.M. Vijayan in an urban cooperative bank at Sulthan Bathery, more than nine months after he took his own life.
This comes a few days after Congress leader and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra concluded her visit to the constituency.
The family members of Vijayan had earlier threatened to go on hunger strike if the loan liability was not cleared, claiming that he had incurred them to help the party. It was alleged that even the land documents of their house had been pledged to the bank.
Vijayan and his son Jijesh attempted suicide on December 25, 2024 and both died two days later. His suicide note later implicated I.C. Balakrishnan, MLA, DCC president N.D. Appachan, and leaders K.K. Gopinathan and P.V. Balachandran for allegedly forcing him to take payments from job applicants in a cooperative bank under the party’s control, landing him in serious financial troubles.
Padmaja Vijesh, daughter-in-law of Vijayan, was found in her room with her left wrist slit on September 12. Hours before, she had met the media against the backdrop of the death of Jose Nelledam, a member of the Mullankolli panchayat, who was found dead in a pond a day earlier. Criticising the Congress leadership, she had said the party “cheated her family” by not clearing the debts of Vijayan. Ms. Vijesh also met the Chief Minister recently.
Family yet to get bank intimation
She told a section of the media on Wednesday that the family was, however, yet to receive any official intimation from the bank regarding the clearance of liabilities.
According to sources, the party had earlier handed over to the family a sum of ₹10 lakh to clear the loan taken from another financial institution. It had also given ₹20 lakh for the family’s subsistence.
KPCC president Sunny Joseph had also recently said the party would take steps to clear the liabilities.
Vijayan reportedly took ₹10 lakh as loan from the bank in 2007. The amount was raised up to ₹40 lakh in phases after converting it first as a business loan and later as an agricultural loan. However, after 2021, he could not pay anything towards clearing the debt.
