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33 Demonetisation Deaths In 7 Days: Hospital Casualties, Suicides, Heart Attacks And Even A Murder

The death toll continues to rise.
(Photo by Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
LightRocket via Getty Images
(Photo by Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

As demonetisation completed a week, the death toll has reached 33. These are confirmed death reported in the national media. The number of unreported deaths may be higher.

  1. Four days before his daughter's wedding, Sukhdev Singh died of heart attack in Tarn Taran, Punjab. Surjit Kaur, wife of the deceased, said, "Nobody was accepting the money we had saved for daughter's marriage. My husband was tense due to this. He had complained of chest pain and died." (Indian Express)
  2. Sumit, a 17 year old son of a BSF jawan in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, committed suicide as his mother won't give him small denomination notes. (Press Trust of India)
  3. A 2-year-old unwell child died in Sambalpur, Odisha, as an autorickshaw drivers refused to take the family to the hospital for want of smaller denomination notes. The family had now-illegal 500 rupee notes. (Report Odisha)
  4. Lakshminarayana, 75, collapsed and died while waiting in a long queue for over two hours at an Andhra Bank branch Secunderabad, Telangana. He had gone to deposit Rs 1.7 lakh. The bank didn't have a separate queue for senior citizens. (IANS)
  5. In Aurangabad, Bihar, an elderly man, Surendra Sharma, died while waiting in a bank queue. (Daudnagar)
  6. Halke Lodhi, a farmer in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, committed suicide as he didn't have money to buy fertiliser and seeds in time for the Rabi sowing season. "Had he got money from the bank in exchange of his old notes, he would not have committed suicide," said his relative Bhupendra Lodhi. (Hindustan Times)
  7. Aziz Ansari, a 60 year old factor worker in Meerut, died of a heart attack in a bank. It was his third day of trying to exchange currency notes. (Times of India)
  8. Raghunath Verma, a 70 year old retired school teacher in Jalaun, eastern Uttar Pradesh, died at a bank queue. His son Ravi said, "We needed Rs 2 lakh for the marriage expenses. My father went to the bank for three days. He had spoken to the bank manager many times asking him to help with the withdrawal and exchange. The manager did not listen to him. He even fell on the manager's feet on Saturday." (Hindustan Times)
  9. In the Bulandshahr (west UP) branch of Kailash hospital, owned by union culture and tourism minister Mahesh Sharma, a child died because the parents had only old currency notes. The hospital wanted them to deposit an advance of Rs 10,000 for admission. The hospital has denied the charge. (One India)
  10. Rizwana, a 24 year old woman in north-east Delhi hanged herself to the ceiling fan with her dupatta as she was upset about not being able to exchange currency for three days. (Indian Express)
  11. In Surat, Gujarat, a 50 year old mother of two committed suicide because she wasn't able to buy ration to feed her family. The shops refused to accept old currency notes. (Times of India)
  12. Shabana, a 20 year old woman in Shamli (west UP) committed suicide. Her brother, returning home after failing to exchange currency at the bank, found her hanging from the ceiling fan. (India Samvad)


  13. In Chikballapur district of Karnataka, a 40 year old woman committed suicide because Rs 15,000 that she had gone to the bank to exchange got lost or stolen. She had hidden the money from her alcoholic husband. (New Indian Express)

  14. In Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, a 45 year old farmer was upset at not being able to exchange Rs 3,000 at the bank for three consecutive days. He needed to send money to his stranded children in Tamil Nadu. He came home and committed suicide. (Press Trust of India)

  15. In Limbdi town of Surendranagar district in Gujarat, a 69 year old collapsed and died of heart attack waiting in a queue to exchange currency notes at a Bank of India branch. (Press Trust of India)

  16. An elderly woman living by herself in Kanpur died while counting her notes. Police found Rs 2.69 lakh worth of old currency notes alongside her body. (Dainik Bhaskar)

  17. Also in Kanpur, a young man died of heart attack while watching prime minister Narendra Modi's announcement of demonetisation. The man had received Rs 70 lakhs in advance for selling his land just the previous day. He had been trying to sell his land for months. (ABP News)

  18. In Mumbai, a hospital refused to admit an ill newborn because the parents didn't have legal tender. The child died. The government has allowed the use of old currency notes only in government-run hospitals. (Mumbai Mirror)

  19. Komali, an 18 month old baby died in Vizag as the parents didn't have money to buy medicines. The private hospital refused to accept old currency notes of Rs 500 or 1,000. (Times of India)

  20. Doctors in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh stopped treating one year old Kush, suffering from high fever, after his parents ran out of 100 rupee notes. The parents brought him home, where he soon died, his father's 500 rupee notes now worthless. (Times of India)

  21. In Pali district of Rajasthan, the ambulance wouldn't take Champalal Meghwal's new born to hospital as he only had Rs 500 and 1,000 notes. By the time Meghwal arranged 100 rupee notes, the child had died. (Indian Express)

  22. In Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh, a washerwoman came to know of demonetisation only when she reached a bank to deposit two 1,000 rupee notes she had saved. When told these were no longer legal tender, she died of shock. (Hindustan Times)

  23. Kandukuri Vinoda, 55, a home-maker in Mahubabad district of Telangana, committed suicide because she thought her cash savings of Rs 54 lakh were now worthless. She had earned the cash by selling land to pay for her husband's treatment, daughter's dowry and buy a smaller piece of land. (Hindustan Times)

  24. In Howrah, West Bengal, a man tense over demonetisation, murdered his wife Madhu Tiwary because she returned empty handed from the ATM. He felt she should have waited longer in the queue. (Times of India)
  25. In Kaimur district of Bihar, 45 year old Ram Awadh Sah died of a massive heart attack as he feared his daughter's would-be in-laws may no longer accept his old currency notes in dowry. He had saved up Rs 35,000. (India Today)
  26. In Thalassery, Kerala, 45 year old KK Unni went to deposit Rs 5 lakh for the second day, after being unsuccessful on the first. He fell from the second floor while filling the deposit slip and died. An employee of the state electricity board, the man had taken the money as loan just the previous day. Local media reports said he was disturbed as he had not been able to change the currency notes. (New Indian Express)
  27. Vishwas Vartak, 72, died of a massive heart attack while waiting to deposit old currency notes at a bank in Mumbai. (Hindustan Times)
  28. Barkat Sheikh, a 47 year old farmer had a heart attack waiting to exchange old currency notes in Tarapur in Gujarat. He needed money to pay farm labour. (Press Trust of India)
  29. In Alappuzha, Kerala, 75 year old Karthikeyan collapsed before a bank and died. He had been waiting for an hour in the queue. (The News Minute)
  30. In Udupi in Karnataka, Gopala Shetty, a 96-year-old man died waiting in a long queue at the bank, and the bank hadn't even opened yet. (Times of India)
  31. 69 year old Vinay Kumar Pandey, a retired BSNL employee, died waiting in a queue at the bank to exchange currency notes in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. (Press Trust of India)
  32. In Bhopal, a State Bank of India cashier died of heart attack. Bank employees have been putting in extra hours and handling large queues. (Hindustan Times)
  33. A businessman in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, felt chest pain soon after watching prime minister Narendra Modi's 8 November announcement of demonetisation. He died before the doctor could arrive. (Financial Express)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.