Farmer kills himself, blames government in suicide note

PATIALA: A 40-year-old debt-ridden farmer committed suicide at Kakrala village in Patiala. The police have booked six persons for abetment to suicide.
The deceased has been identified as Gurmel Singh. He had also been running a battery shop for the last 10 years in his village after he found that his agricultural occupation was not enough for him to carry on the expenditures.

Gurmel had hanged himself at his shop. He also left a suicide note and blamed the state government for not waiving off his loan amounting to Rs 4 lakh. He also held six persons responsible for the extreme step as they allegedly cheated him and failed to return his money.

The villagers claimed that Gurmel was a small farmer with only two acres of land. He had recently sown wheat crop in his fields. The villagers revealed that like many other farmers, he was distressed over the government’s failure in providing him relief from the loan amount under the crop loan waiver scheme.

Harmel Singh, leader of farmer union BKU (Ugrahan), said: “Farmers are committing suicide as the state government has failed to fulfil promise of waiving off loans. Farmers having a loan amount of over Rs 2 lakh are not being included in the list of the government’s loan-waiving scheme. The police should register a case against the state government and the chief minister.”

A case has been registered at Nabha Kotwali police station against six persons under Section 306 (abetment of Suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The accused have been identified as Bhinder Singh, Dutt, Parminder Singh, Gora Singh of Isser Combine Company, Jagtaar Singh and Dharma Singh. No arrests have been made so far. The police are investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, the family members of the deceased protested against the police officials for not being able to arrest the accused.

The deceased is survived by his wife and a 10-year-old son.