Man commits suicide over gaming debts

A young man from Thiruvananthapuram has committed suicide after he mounted a massive debt of Rs 22 lakhs in online rummy. The man was found hanging in the backyard of his house on New Year's eve.

Thiruvananthapuram: A man was found dead in his house here on Thursday in a suspected suicide case. The man had been losing money in online rummy and had accumulated a huge debt which may have pushed the young man to such an extreme step.

Vineeth, a native of Kuttichal in Neyyar Dam area, ended his life by hanging himself from the branch of a rubber tree in the backyard of his house on December 31.

According to his relatives and people from the locality, Vineeth had mounted about Rs 22 lakhs in debt by playing rummy online. He was found dead, hanging from a rubber tree in his backyard on the new year's eve.

The dead body was cremated after the postmortem.

There has been a flurry of such cases across South India, which also prompted various state govts to ban online gaming in their states.

The Andhra Pradesh govt recently passed the AP Gaming (Amendment) Bill 2020, banning online gaming in the state after some youngsters committed suicide after they were pushed into debts by playing online games. A similar ordinance was passed in Tamil Nadu as well.