Army Veteran who 'committed suicide' was owed additional Rs 3,000 per month

New Delhi: The ex-serviceman who allegedly committed suicide in Delhi on Tuesday was supposed to receive Rs 3,000 per month in addition to his pension under the One Rank One Pension scheme, which was rolled out in February, but he never received the amount.

According to a report in NDTV, Ram Kishen Grewal, who served in the Army for about 30 years, received a monthly pension of Rs 25,000 and was entitled to an additional pension of Rs. 3,000 per month.

However, he received neither the additional amount nor the arrears that was owed to him since February, when the Centre cleared the OROP scheme following months of protests by ex-servicemen.

The Defence Ministry sources had on Wednesday said that Grewal did not receive the amount because of an error at the bank and that there was no lapse on the part of the government.

According to sources, Grewal received a lesser amount as part of the OROP scheme under the 6th pay commission due to an error in calculation by the SBI bank branch in Bhiwani district of Haryana, a matter which was being looked into.

Grewal, who allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison at Delhi's Jantar Mantar area on Tuesday, had been reportedly upset over the issue for some time.

His alleged suicide snowballed into a huge political show with Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other opposition leaders attacking the Narendra Modi government on the issue while there was high drama after police detained and prevented them from entering a hospital.

The Congress Vice President was detained twice on Wednesday and was finally released late in the evening as restrictions were put on Kejriwal's movements before he was briefly detained. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was kept in custody for close to 10 hours.