Kotak Mahindra Bank on Friday said that it had fired an employee in Kerala for his Facebook post condoning the rape of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district in January.
“Good that she was killed at this age itself,” Vishnu Nandakumar had said on Facebook, according to reports. “Otherwise she would have grown up and come back as a suicide bomber against India.”
Nandakumar was an assistant manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Palarivattom branch in Kochi. His Facebook profile appears to have been deactivated.
He shared the Facebook post even as the brutal rape and murder of the eight-year-old sparked statewide protests – and counter protests by the Hindu Ekta Manch against the arrest of the accused – with several groups demanding an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The chargesheet the Crime Branch filed against eight accused, including a juvenile, revealed sordid details of the crime.
“It is extremely disheartening to see such comments being made in the aftermath of such tragedy by anyone including an ex-employee,” Kotak Mahindra Bank said in its statement announcing Nandakumar’s termination. “We strongly condemn this statement.”
Kotak took action after people began to comment on the bank’s Facebook page, urging the bank to take action against Nandakumar.
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