Suicide of VFPCK employee; Controversy over non-payment of wife’s salary rages further

The controversy over the suicide of V.T. Shijo, allegedly over the prolonged delay in disbursing his wife’s salary, deepened further on Tuesday with both the school authorities and the Education Department trading blame.

George Joseph, manager of St. Joseph’s High School in Naranamuzhi where Shijo’s wife, Lekha, is employed, said here on Tuesday that he had repeatedly taken up the matter with the District Education Office (DEO), even personally accompanying the family to resolve the issue. Despite submitting all the necessary documents long ago, he alleged that officials deliberately withheld the files.

“Even after the Education Minister’s intervention and a clear High Court directive, the officials remained unmoved. Each time, they cited lack of proper authentication as an excuse to stall the disbursement,” Mr. Joseph said.

He blamed the delay on bureaucratic red tape within the Education department and alleged that even appeals from the Minister’s office were ignored, despite the family’s long-standing ties with the CPI(M).

Lekha joined the school in 2012, but her salary had been withheld for years due to a legal dispute involving another claimant to her position. Although the High Court ruled in her favor and ordered that her salary and benefits for the past 14 years be paid, the direction is yet to be executed.

Following the suicide, three officials from the Pathanamthitta DEO have been suspended pending a departmental inquiry. They have been identified as N.G. Anilkumar (PA to the DEO), S. Firoz (Superintendent) and R. Bini (Section Clerk). However, Shijo’s family has indicated that further legal action will be initiated, asserting that mere suspensions are not enough and holding the department’s negligence responsible for his death.

DEO officials have already denied the allegations, stating that it was the school’s duty to generate the arrears bill. Officials also claimed that Lekha began receiving regular salary payments from February 2025, including the most recent payment for July.

Education Minister V. Sivankutty has intervened in the issue and assured stringent action against those found responsible for the lapse that allegedly led to Shijo’s death.

Officials have now collected a fresh application from the school, citing incomplete documentation as a reason for the continued delay. Shijo, who worked as a field staff member with the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK), was found hanging in the Moongampara forest on Sunday evening.

According to family members, Shijo was under immense financial strain after failing to arrange the fee required for his son’s admission to an engineering college in Erode, Tamil Nadu