A British Tamil man took his own life in 2005 after he was implicated in the Horizon IT scandal, but his family have now been denied compensation from the Post Office.

35 year old, Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam, committed suicide after his Post Office branch in Putney came under investigation. The Post Office had alleged that £179,000 had gone missing from the cash machine and the safe. 

Between 1999 and 2015, around 900 postmasters and mistresses were charged with fraud and theft, based on evidence from a faulty computer system called Horizon. 

Sivasubramaniam’s wife gave an account to the MP’s business committee in which she explained the Putney branch was raided by two Post Office investigators who took files from the shop and locked Sivasubramaniam and his wife out. 

Hours later on Marc 4, 2005, Sivasubramaniam took his life while his wife and two young children attended a family party. 

Speaking to The Times, his widow said: “My poor husband was not given the chance to prove his side, and took his own life.” 

The Times reported that the Post Office has refused to pay Sivasubramaniam’s family any compensation. 

In a letter to Sivasubramaniam's wife, the Post Office said: “The relevant contract was held by the company and not [the wife] and therefore the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) does not extend to her claim.” It added: “The panel has no reason to doubt that the audit and what it uncovered had a profound impact on Mr Jayakanthan [sic] and resulted in him sadly taking his own life.”

Sivasubramaniam is one of five people who took their own lives due to the scandal. 

Seven sub- postmasters of South Asian heritage told the BBC that they believed that racism affected the way people were treated in the scandal. 

Balvinder Gill was was wrongly accused of stealing £108,000 from the Post Office in 2004 and his mother Kashmir, was found guilty of stealing £57,000 from the same Oxford branch, but her conviction was later overturned in 2021. 

Due to the accusations,Gill said he had a mental breakdown and was sectioned three times. 

"My parents were spoken to as if they were idiots because they're not white. They were made to feel like they didn't understand the system and that they were stupid," Gill told the BBC. 

Earlier this year, the UK government announced emergency legislation to exonerate and compensate victims. 

While hundreds of convictions have now been overturned, many have taken their lives or died before justice was served.