JAGATSINGHPUR: In a shocking incident, a 50-year-old man on Monday committed suicide due to acute poverty and loan burden. The body of Ashok Kumar Roul of Sadeisasan village under Biridi police limits was found hanging from a tree at an isolated place on Anikhia-Adhangarh road. The body was sent to the district headquarters hospital at Jagatsinghpur for post-mortem. 

Sources said Roul resided in a thatched house along with his six family members. The family did not have a single earning member which made survival tough. Though a house was allotted to Roul under Indira Awas Yojana, it was destroyed in the super cyclone of 1999. 

Sarpanch of Sadeisasan Amit Kumar Baral said Roul owned one acre of land and had availed loan of `30,000 from a local cooperative society for cultivation around four years back. However, he could not repay it. Besides, he had taken loans from some persons in the village for sustenance of his family. Roul had sold a milch cow on Saturday to reduce his loan burden and was left with no means for generating income for his family. 

Biridi IIC Ranjit Mohanty said as per preliminary investigation, family dispute may be the reason behind the death.