In a heart-rending incident that has shocked residents of Nangal town in Ropar district, a 45-year-old widow, Ranjana Devi, ended her life after allegedly being harassed by recovery agents of a private finance company. She jumped into the Nangal hydel canal on Wednesday evening after repeated threats from the agents who were pressing her to repay a remaining loan balance of just Rs 1,000.
Ranjana Devi, mother of two daughters, earned her living by stitching clothes at home. Her elder daughter Anchal told The Tribune that her mother had taken a loan of about Rs 30,000 from a private finance company based in Una district of Himachal Pradesh to buy a sewing machine.
“She repaid the amount through a middlewoman who had arranged the loan, but recently some recovery agents started visiting our house, saying the loan was unpaid. My mother could not trace the middlewoman and agreed to repay again, but she was short of Rs 1,000. The agents abused and pushed her. Terrified and humiliated, she jumped into the canal,” said a tearful Anchal, now left to fend for herself and her younger sister.
Locals spotted the body floating in the canal, a video of which surfaced on the social media. Though the body was yet to be recovered, the victim’s daughters identified their mother in the video.