Mafia state

After a small hiatus, family suicides are increasing at an alarming rate in Kerala. Yet again, the culprits are blade mafia groups. Vishnu S. Nair and his wife Rashmi were found dead in a rented house in Ramapuram Radha Bhavan in Panakkapalam the other day. Private moneylenders had threatened them at their house on Sunday. Police said that Vishnu was roughed up by the group while passing lewd comments at his wife.

Debts started piling up for Vishnu, a construction contractor, after the pandemic. He tried to take up small contracts to pay interest to the blade mafia gangs as much as he could. However, he always fell short in completing the payment. The looming threat turned real when the Kaduthuruthy gang reached his house the other day. A sixty-year-old man named Sashi from Vallikunnath committed suicide the other day after getting threatened by loan sharks. Despite the surge in such deaths, the authorities seldom do any serious investigation into such cases. This gives a wriggle room for such blade mafia gangs to escape and continue their shenanigans with impunity.

The blade mafia gangs, which temporarily went into oblivion during 'Operation Kubera', are now very active in the state. The economic crisis caused by demonetization and the subsequent COVID-19 outbreak was exploited by most gangs. While they target business groups in cities, in villages, small-time traders are caught in the trap. Some gangs buy house and property documents as collateral for loans. None of this is done based on legal documents. There are countless stories of people losing their houses over failure to pay back money. Gangs are also working on a commission basis to help blade mafias. Many of the mafia groups already cherish great camaraderie with corrupt police officers, who all provide the needed assistance to help continue their crime unhindered.

Why do ordinary people fall prey to loan sharks so often? No reason would be more plausible than the obstacles and difficulties they face in getting loans from banks and cooperative institutions. The government should think about schemes to save debt-stricken strugglers in the state. Although there are many laws to control extortion, the authorities do not dare apply any of them to subdue blade mafia operations in the state. The plague caused by such mafias is ruining many lives, and if not for any prudent measures, it will spread.