Deaths After Demonetisation: Chaos Claims 18 Lives in Five Days

Long queues at bank, lack of valid currency for treatment and initial shock has claimed several lives.

PM Modi announced the demonetisation move on Tuesday night, throwing the country into a tizzy.

The chaos has reached such a level that 18 deaths in the last five days have been linked to this sudden announcement.

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• An ailing infant in Mumbai died get after a hospital refused to admit it since his parents’ only had the scrapped Rs 500 currency notes.
• A 20-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide in Muzaffarnagar as she did not have valid notes for her treatment.
• An 18-month-old girl, the daughter of a watchman, who was unwell died in Visakhapatnam after a hospital refused to accept the demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from her parents. (The News Minute)
• A one-year-old, suffering from high fever, died in Mainpuri in UP after doctors stopped his treatment since his father ran out of Rs 100 notes and was only left with Rs 500 notes. (Times of India)
• In Rajasthan’s Pali district, a resident kept looking for hours for an ambulance that would accept Rs 500 and 1,000 notes to take his newborn to a hospital. By the time he could arrange Rs 100 notes, the infant had died. (The Indian Express)
• A 40-year old woman in Gorakhpur, UP, had saved two Rs 1,000 notes and went to the bank to deposit the money, where she learned that her savings were no longer valid currency. She died of shock.

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• A 69-year-old man who was standing in a queue to exchange demonetised currency notes in Limbdi in Gujarat, collapsed and died due to a heart attack.
• Another 69-year-old man died in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar town in a similar incident. The senior citizen suffered a heart attack while standing in a queue to exchange banned currency notes outside a bank.
• In Tarapur in Gujarat, a 47-year-old farmer died after suffering a heart attack while standing in a queue for over two hours outside a bank.
• In Alappuzha in Kerala, a 75-year-old man collapsed in front of a bank in the afternoon and died. He had been standing in queue for nearly an hour.
• Another senior citizen collapsed and died of a heart attack in front of a bank while waiting to deposit the banned currency notes in Mumbai. (Hindustan Times)
• A 96-year-old man died in Udupi, Karnataka, while waiting in a queue at a bank in Ajekar due to a spike in blood pressure. (Times of India)

Also Read: Before PM’s Announcement, Rumours of Demonetisation Abounded

• After villagers told a 55-year-old woman in Telangana that her Rs 54 lakh savings in cash were “as good as waste paper”, apparently unaware that she can exchange her banned notes, she committed suicide. To get that cash, she had sold her land to pay for her husband’s treatment, her daughter’s wedding and buy another piece of land. (Hindustan Times)
• A bride’s father died of a massive heat attack in Bihar’s Kaimur district as he feared the Rs 35,000 dowry he had saved in cash for his daughter’s wedding would no longer be accepted by the groom’s family. (India Today)
• A 45-year-old senior cashier with State Bank of India died after he experienced chest pain in Bhopal. Bank employees are working extra hours to cater to the rush of people and banks were open on the weekend as well.
• A businessman in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, died of a heart attack after watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 8 November announcement of demonetisation on TV.
• In Thalassery, Kerala, a 48-year-old man went to deposit Rs 5 lakh, which he had taken as a loan just a day earlier, in a bank located on the second floor. He died after he fell from the third floor of the building. Police said it was an accidental death, while local TV reports and activists said that he was disturbed as he was unable to exchange the money.
• In Howrah, West Bengal, a man murdered his wife because she returned empty- handed from the ATM. He felt she should have waited longer in the queue. (The Times of India)

(With inputs from PTI)