Indian police arrested a loan shark Tuesday after an impoverished labourer burdened with debt burned his family alive.
The man’s wife and two daughters died after being doused in kerosene and set alight on Monday but he survived and is now in hospital in critical condition.
Sandeep Nanduri, the top local official in Tirunelveli district, southern India, said the man had taken a loan of 142,000 rupees (£1,600) earlier this year to start a business but was being pressured to pay more interest.
An India labourer known only as Esakimuthu doused himself and his family with kerosene on Monday and set them alight in a desperate bid to escape crippling debt
While his wife and children died, Esakimuthu survived the blaze and is now in critical condition in hospital (pictured being carried to an ambulance)
The labourer, identified only as Esakimuthu, had repaid nearly double the loan but the lender was pushing for around £2,300 more in repayments.
Nanduri said the man was allegedly pressured by police to repay the extra interest, driving him to desperation.
‘We have started an investigation over allegations that the police and officials didn’t help the man,’ Nanduri told AFP.
‘A police officer has been transferred and his role is being investigated.’
The lender has been arrested on charges of assisting suicide and breaching laws on charging exorbitant interest, Nanduri said.
Most Indian states have criminalised commercial moneylending. All lenders, both formal and informal, are banned from charging interest rates above 21 per cent.
The man was forced to borrow from a loan shark as many impoverished workers are forbidden from obtaining bank loans in India, before the lender upped the interest rate
When Esakimuthu complained to police about the crippling interest rate officers allegedly sided with the lender, leaving him desperate
Thousands of low-income Indians, mostly farmers, are often denied loans by banks and rely on unscrupulous lenders for quick cash.
Private lenders charge steep interest rates upwards of 50 per cent, locking borrowers in a cycle of debt. Many use threats and force to reclaim unpaid loans.
Hundreds of farmers crippled by debt have committed suicide in recent years, especially in Tamil Nadu where a bad drought put enormous financial pressure on poor families.
Nearly 48 per cent of farmers in India took loans from informal sources such as moneylenders and landlords, according to a 2012 report by All India Debt and Investment Survey.