A man who consumed poison before Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal last week after suffering losses allegedly due to demonetisation and GST died during treatment in Dehradun on Tuesday, hospital sources said.
Prakash Pandey, a resident of Haldwani, had recounted his story to Mr. Uniyal during a ‘Janata Darbar’ programme at the BJP office in the State capital on Saturday.
Mr. Pandey had introduced himself as a transporter during the event. He told the Minister that he was struggling to repay loans after demonetisation of high value currency notes and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax hit his business.
He said he was forced to consume poison as his attempts to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP chief Amit Shah through letters had failed.
When BJP workers realised Mr. Pandey had consumed poison, they rushed him in the Minister’s car to Doon Hospital, from where he was later referred to Max Hospital in Dehradun.
Mr. Pandey died at the hospital on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said he was sad to learn about Mr. Pandey’s death.
Mr. Pandey was on life support, but could not be saved “as he had taken more than the fatal dose of poison,” Mr. Rawat told reporters.
Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat said the death was a “shameful” incident for the State government.
