A farmer committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh allegedly due to non-procurement of his sugarcane produce amid the Covid-19-induced lockdown, according to his family. The suicide triggered a protest by farmers on Friday who demanded that a case be registered against sugar mill officials for their failure to procure sugarcane from farmers.

The angry farmers staged aroad blockade and refused to cremate the body till their demands were met. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took up the matter and criticised the BJP government. "Seeing his sugarcane crop drying in the field and not getting the slip, a sugarcane farmer from Muzaffarnagar committed suicide. Imagine the plight of these sugarcane farmers' families not getting their dues during this financial crisis," she said and questioned the government's silence.

Ompal Singh, a resident of Sisoli village in the Bhorakala police station area, had left home for his fields on Thursday and later in the day, his body was found hanged from a tree.