'Tyranny of KYC must end': Karti Chidambaram after 59-year-old dies in bank queue in UP's Sonbhadra

Karti Chidambaram, Congress MP from Sivaganga, has called for an end to the "tyranny of KYC" after a tragic incident in Uttar Pradesh highlighted the ordeal faced by customers during Know Your Customer (KYC) verification processes. In a tweet on Tuesday, he said: "I flagged this harassment faced by all during my intervention in the Banking Amendment Bill debate. When nothing has changed, why should customers constantly 'update' their KYC? This KYC updation is a vicious business where certain firms profiteer from the outsourced contracts."

Chidambaram's statement came in response to independent journalist Kunal Purohit's report of a 59-year-old man in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, who collapsed and died after standing in line for four days outside an Indian Bank branch to complete his KYC verification.  

Purohit shared the details in a tweet: "The cost of mindless exercises like KYC verification: A 59-year-old stood in the queue for 3 days outside his Indian Bank branch in UP's Sonbhadra. 4th day, he collapses and dies outside the bank, waiting for his KYC verification. Bank had said no fund transfer without KYC. Worse, when he collapsed, the bank rushed his family out of the branch rather than helping him."  

Reacting to the post, a social media user called KYC a 'mindless exercise;, which is wasting large amount of time, money and effort. "KYC is now an industry in itself. While other countries are scaling their tech operations, we are generating KYC employment by putting regular folks in trouble."

According to the report, Ramman (59) was troubled with withdrawing money and completing KYC formalities at an Indian Bank branch in Kacharnava, Sonbhadra. After several days of running around, he was standing in line at the branch on Friday, waiting for his turn, when he suddenly collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness. 

The report, citing people, said that the branch manager had clearly stated that no transactions would be allowed until the KYC was completed. The deceased had been visiting the bank and standing in line for the past four days, but the bank staff often cited issues like a non-functional server or other problems, asking him to come back the next day. Three days passed in this manner, but the KYC process remained incomplete. 

On Friday, Ramman suddenly collapsed in the bank premises. Upon seeing this, a bank employee remarked, "Take him away immediately, or you'll get us into trouble."