(From left) Devinder’s wife Rajvir Kaur, daughter Arshpreet and mother-in-law Jaspal Kaur. Express photo
A liquid filled crystal ball in her hands, eight-year-old Arshpreet Kaur appears completely oblivious to the fact that her father is dead. Otherwise, at Chanarthal Khurd village in Fatehgarh Sahib district, the mood has been sombre since Thursday morning, when Arshpreet’s father Devinder Singh (32), upset over “harassment” at the hands of a family of commission agents, was found hanging from iron girder-cum-bricks ceiling in a room he bolted from inside around 10 am.
In the past eight years, this is the suicide in the family, claiming the life of the last male member on Thursday. All three suicides have been attributed to farm crisis and alleged exploitation by commission agents. Left behind in the family are Devinder’s mother, his wife and daughter Arshpreet, studying in Class II.
“In 2009, upset over the harassment by arhtiyas (commission agents), Devinder’s 22-year-old brother Gurpreet committed suicide. In December 2016, Devinder’s father Gurlabh Singh died after consuming pesticide. And now, Devinder has ended his life,” says Devinder’s cousin brother Fateh Singh, who runs a flour mill in the village.
“Gurlabh Singh’s family had an outstanding debt of Rs 4 lakh in 1994 for the loans they took from Arhtiya Baldev Singh. Till 2008, Gurlabh Singh used to trade his crop through Baldev Singh only. But, that year Baldev Singh and his sons said the outstanding debt had risen to Rs 25 lakh. Arhtiya forced the family to sell all the four acres of their land to recover the debt and promised Gurlabh an alternate chunk of land at some other place after realising his debt amount. He neither bought alternate chunk of land nor gave any balance amount from nearly Rs 60 lakh, the amount that four acres were sold for,” says Fateh. “Upset over Arhtiya not returning the money, Gurpreet first committed suicide in 2009. In 2016, after pressure was mounted, the family of arhtiya gave Rs 4.5 lakh. Gurlabh’s family demanded at least Rs 20 lakh in one go and was ready to settle for receiving the remaining amount later,” Fateh said.
Activists of farm unions stepped in and a dharna was held outside Patiala residence of commission agent Baldev Singh in November 2016. On November 30, 2016, according to another farmer Gurmukh Singh who said he too was “victim” of commission agent, Gurlabh Singh consumed pesticide near dharna site. “He was hospitalised. On December 5, 2016, a case of cheating was registered against Baldev Singh and others for duping some farmers to the tune of Rs 1.11 crore,” said Gurmukh.
Days later, Gurlabh died in the hospital. A case of abetment to suicide was registered on December 13, 2016, against Baldev Singh and his sons Harjeet Singh, Jaspal Singh and Supinder Singh and women of the family.
According to Gurmukh, all other members of Baldev’s family are out on bail in that case, except Jaspal Singh who “surrendered recently” after “absconding” for months. In the latest case, Fatehgarh Sahib Senior Superintendent of Police Alka Meena said a case of abetment to suicide was registered against Baldev and his three sons on Friday and further investigations were on.
Baldev’s son Supinder refutes the allegations and says “a different colour was given to family dispute suicides by the farm unions”.
“Can anyone believe in today’s era that anyone can sell anyone else’s land? They (Gurlabh’s family) had to pay us back and they sold their land on their will. Can anyone believe a commission agent sold a farmer’s land and pocketed the money? The cases against us were registered due to pressure by farmer unions,” Supinder said over phone. “They committed suicides due to disputes in the family.”
An official who was at Chanarthal village said. “The case of Devinder’s suicide has been verified and it was a farm suicide.”
Fatehgarh Sahib deputy commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar said case would be moved for compensation, a minimum of Rs 3 lakh, for the family of the deceased farmer.
“When Devinder’s father Gurlabh committed suicide in Patiala, the government had announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and job to one family member. Out of that, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh was paid, but no job was given. Had Devinder been employed as peon only, he would have earned something for the family. But, with no resources, he had slipped into depression for past few months,” said Fateh.
Patiala Deputy Commissioner Kumar Amit said, “We will expedite the case to get remaining Rs 5 lakh released from Chief Minister’s relief fund. The remaining amount could not have been paid due to imposition of model code of conduct [for February 4 Assembly elections]. As far as assurance of job is concerned, only government can take a call.”
Meanwhile, Devinder was cremated on Friday. Among those who attended the cremation were Punjab AAP convenor Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Didar Singh Bhatti, who contested from Fatehgarh Sahib in February polls on SAD ticket and lost to Congress’s Kuljit Singh Nagra. Nagra’s wife also attended the cremation. Khaira expressed his anguish live on Facebook over farm suicide crisis in Punjab with reference to three suicides in the family.
“The Arhtiyas would taunt Devinder during the court hearings that he will not be able to do any harm to them. This added to his depression. As he battled penury, we offered him to take care of expenses of education of his daughter and other family expenses,” said Jaswinder Singh, husband of one of Devinder’s two sisters. According to Devinder’s family, his mother Jaspal Kaur was at her daughter’s place. Devinder’s wife Rajvir Kaur was at her parents’ place with daughter Arshpreet when Devinder took the extreme step in one of the rooms of their three-room house on the village periphery. Arshpreet, a student at DAV Public School, appeared oblivious of the fact that she has lost her father.
