Kotak Mahindra Bank fires Kerala employee over comments on Kathua rape victim
Image for representational purpose only. (File photo | Reuters)
KOCHI: A Malayalibank officer earned the wrath of people on social media and lost his job after he posted a comment on Facebook against the eight-year-old Kashmiri rape victim.Vishnu Nandakumar, an assistant manager of the Palarivattom branch of Kotak Mahindra Bank, made the post on FB spewing verbal abuse on the girl from Kathua in Jammu.

The man, Vishnu Nandakumar, had posted on Facebook that “Ivale ellamippozhekonnathunannayi… allenkilnaale Indiaykku ethire bomb aayivannene” (Better she was killed now itself, otherwise she could have come with a bomb against India tomorrow).Though the post did not mention any particular incident or name, netizens took up the issue. Several of them—after learning from his Facebook page that Nandakumar was working with Kotak Mahindra—bombarded the financial institution’s social media pages with demands initiating action against him for his ‘perverted’ justification of a gruesome act.
Some others followed up his social media footprint and came up with photographs, purportedly linking Nandakumar with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Following the onslaught, Nandakumar deactivated his page, but indignant social media users targeted the bank for retaining the man.
One of them, Abdul Jaleel, wrote: “Dismiss your employee working in your bank as assistant manager @ ernakulam branch, for supporting the heart broken cruel activity in public domain”. Various #tag campaigns, such as #dismiss_your_manager_vishnu_nandakumar and #dismiss_your_manager, were also launched.
The bank later fired Nandakumar. The bank’s spokesperson Rohit Rao issued a statement, saying the man’s services were terminated due to poor performance on Wednesday.
“It is extremely disheartening to see such comments being made in the aftermath of such a tragedy by anyone including an ex-employee. We strongly condemn this statement,” the bank said in a statement, which was also posted on social media.
The security guards at the Palarivattom branch said the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) held a protest march before the institution on Friday afternoon. “There might have been 25 people in the march – they came here, shouted slogans and returned. The Facebook post had gone viral on Thursday night and by today morning there appeared three posters against him on the nearby tree and a wall,” one of them said.
His comment went viral and scores of FB users came up against him. People started posting comments against him on the official page of the bank. Even the bank received calls demanding action against him.
The post by Vishnu reads: “Good that she was killed at this age. Otherwise, she would have grown up and come back as a suicide bomber against India.”Over 34,000 comments were posted on the bank’s FB wall seeking his dismissal. Many even threatened to close their account with the bank if action was not taken against him.
Finally, the bank on Friday came up with a post saying Vishnu was sacked. Though the bank had given an explanation that he was sacked for ‘poor performance’, they also condemned Nandakumar’s post.
“We have terminated Vishnu Nandakumar from the services of the bank on Wednesday, April 11 for poor performance. It is extremely disheartening such comments are being made in the aftermath of such tragedy by anyone including an ex-employee. We strongly condemn this statement,” it said.The bank also claimed it had sacked him on April 11.
new indian express
April 14, 2018 at 4:25 pm
The comments of the employee are deplorable. The bank management has fired him rightly. The employee should apologise for his statements supporting rapists