Kotak Mahindra Bank fires employee for hate post against Kathua rape victim on Facebook

New Delhi : Kotak Mahindra Bank on Friday confirmed that they have fired one of their employees for supporting Kathua rape incident on Facebook.

“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.”

Vishnu Nandakumar used to work as an assistant manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Palarivattom branch in Kochi. It looks like he has deactivated his Facebook account for now.

His post came at a time when nationwide protests are going over the the brutal rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl. In his post in Malayalam, Nandakumar had justified the killing of the young victim. He stated that it was good that she was killed otherwise she would have turned into a future human bomb and grown up to be a terrorist.

It caused a huge outcry with many writing to the bank against Nandakumar. The bank on Friday pointed out that his services were terminated on Wednesday due to poor performance. It also condemned its former employee's social media post.

"Since he has been charged under a non-bailable offence, he will be arrested. The probe has begun probe and appropriate actions will follow," said the officer on condition of anonymity.

The minor girl from the Bakerwal community was kidnapped on January 10; taken to a temple in Rasana village in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district.

Her attackers, which included temple official and policemen, drugged and gang raped her over days before finally killing her and dumping her body in forest nearby seven days later.

The girl was attacked to scare away the nomadic Muslim community out of the village. 

“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.”