PATHANAMTHITTA: A 47-year-old man from Athikkayam, Ranni, died by suicide, reportedly due to financial stress stemming from alleged bureaucratic negligence and a 14-year delay in payment of the salary of his wife, a schoolteacher.

V.T. Shijo, a field staff member in the Agriculture Department, was found hanging in the Moongampara forest on Sunday evening. According to family members, Shijo was under immense mental and financial strain after failing to arrange the fees required for his son’s admission to an engineering college in Erode, Tamil Nadu.

Shijo’s wife, Lekha Raveendran, a teacher at an aided school in Naranamuzhi, has reportedly not received her salary for the past 12 to 14 years. Despite a High Court order directing the disbursement of the full salary with arrears before January 7, 2025, only a meagre amount was paid, the family said.

Lekha had approached the court after repeated attempts to get her salary failed. The High Court ruling in her favor instructed the Education Department to process the payment retroactively. However, Shijo’s father, T. Thyagarajan, a retired bank employee, alleged that officials at the District Educational Office (DEO) failed to implement the court’s directives due to improper documentation and bureaucratic delay.