70-year-old dies of heart attack in bank pandal

RAJKOT: A 70-year-old man died of a severe cardiac arrest in a pandal set up by a nationalized bank in Ranpur town of Botad district on Wednesday.
Jilu Khachar, the deceased, was accompanying some other senior citizen outside Bank of Baroda’s branch and sitting in the pandal for nearly four hours, sources said. At around 2pm, Khachar started feeling uneasy and collapsed.His body was sent to a government hospital for post-mortem, police said.
Rajendra Karmatiya, police subinspector, Ranpur police station told TOI: “Khachar had withdrawn Rs 24,000 from the bank two days ago. We have verified this from the bank records. He was probably accompanying someone to the bank. He was sitting on the ground in the pandal where he suffered a heart attack.”
Karmatiya said Khachar, a native of Sanganpur village, had suffered a heart attack some years ago too.
Meanwhile, tempers also ran high in some villages of Saurashtra as banks and ATMs ran out of cash, leaving hundreds standing in the queue since early morning frustrated.
In Gondal taluka’s Mota Dalva village, the manager of State Bank of India (SBI) branch was thrashed by some people. The manager lodged a complaint against two people who were booked for assault. They were agitated over not getting cash from the ATM and suspension of exchange of the invalid Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes at the bank.
Angry villagers also forcibly locked down the branch of Dena Bank in Sarambhda village of Amreli district on Wednesday. Standing in queue since late night, people failed to get any cash as the bank ran out of money. The villagers pulled down the shutter and locked the bank. They did not even allow the bank staff to enter.
Motabhai Samvat, a villager, said, “We have been standing in the queue daily since the last four days. Many of us even camp here since midnight. But the bank doesn’t have new currency notes. We had no option but to lock the bank.”
Samvat said it has become extremely difficult for the farmers to pay their labourers and buy seeds due to cash crunch.