On Tuesday, November 21, South producer Ashok Kumar committed suicide at his house in Alwarthirunagar, Chennai.

While committing suicide, he had also written a suicide note in which he had blamed a financer for forcing him to end his life.

In the suicide note which was addressed to his relative, Sasikumar has blamed a man named Anbu Chezhiyan, a financier, who forced Ashok to take this extreme step. According to a report in International Business Times, seven years ago, Ashok had borrowed money and the financer charged an excessive amount of interest. From last few months, Anbu was threatening to kidnap his family if he didn’t clear the borrowed amount. In the note, Ashok stated that he was left with only two options- to kill the financer or commit suicide and he chose the second option.

A complaint has been filed by Sasikumar in Valasaravakkam police station and other filmmakers like Bala, Samuthirakani and Ameer accompanied him. A case of abetment of suicide under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered has been charged against the financier. Ashok’s body has been sent to the Government Royapettah hospital for post-mortem. As per a report in The Hindu, if it is proven that Anbu was lending money at high rates of interest then he will be charged under more sections under the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act.

Vishal, the president of Tamil Nadu Producers’ council and secretary of Nadigar Sangam, has requested producers to approach the council if they need any help. He has also requested police to consider this as a murder and not a suicide. He has also written a letter on his Facebook account. A film analyst Sreedhar Pillai took to his Twitter account and shared the letter. Have a look:

As a mark of respect for Ashok, Ritchie’s audio launch which was scheduled for today has been cancelled. And the success meet of Theeran Adhigaram Ondru too has been cancelled.

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