“My request to the company is to make rules keeping employees in mind, not just...(the company). We collection agents are humans, not Gods…for whom everything should be possible. For the whole month you created pressure. I worked very hard but the situation at all locations was bad. The condition was made worse by the rains. Yet, I made all efforts to reach my targets...”
These are words from the five-page suicide note left behind by 42-year-old Tarun Saxena, the area manager of the finance company Bajaj Finserv. Saxena was found hanging in his room on Monday. In the evening, a case for abetment for suicide was filed by his wife Megha, a techie.
Gyanendra Kumar Singh, SP, Jhansi said, “We have conducted the postmortem. An FIR under sections for abetment of suicide, criminal intimidation and intentional insult has been registered against two executives”. The two - regional manager Prabhakar Mishra and national manager Vaibhav Saxena have been named in Saxena’s suicide note.
Saxena’s brother Gaurav said that his brother had been unable to sleep for the past several weeks because of work pressure. “Even on Sunday, he was forced to attend a work call in which he was rebuked by his seniors”. The deceased was also threatened with salary deductions in case he did not meet targets.
The deceased was incharge of making collections on loans given in Jhansi and a few neighbouring areas. Many of these loans had been given to farmers and the extended monsoon had destroyed crops, making it difficult for them to repay their loan instalments.
Gaurav also alleged that for the past two months, his brother had been paying off the loan instalments from his salary. He had been spending most of his time in Talbehat and Moth (two areas under Saxena’s watch). “On Saturday he did not have dinner. On Sunday morning, he was on a morning call despite it being a holiday”, said the brother.
There is an audio clip doing the rounds on social media which purportedly reflects this rebuke, but the authenticity of this clip has not been established. Saxena leaves behind two minor children. His daughter celebrated her birthday on September 23.