PATHANKOT: A 65-year-old farmer, Sucha Singh, allegedly poisoned himself to death at Ladpalwan toll tax plaza here on Tuesday night.
Sucha, who retired from Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd as a junior engineer, was also a farmer and had spent several days on Delhi's borders as part of the ongoing protest to pressure the Centre to repeal three agri-marketing laws, Lok Bhalai Insaf Welfare Society vice-president Jaswant Singh Kothi told TOI on Wednesday.
Sucha donated 10,000 and distributed vegetables in the langar on Tuesday, and then went to the city for some time, said Kothi. When he returned to the plaza, he vomited a couple of times. "When other protesters asked him what had happened, he said, 'Mai dawai pi lai hai, metho kisana da dukh nai vekhya janda (I have swallowed medicine [poison], I can't bear to see their sorrow),'" Kothi said.
Sucha was later taken to a private hospital where he breathed his last. The post-mortem report is still awaited. On Wednesday, his body was first brought to Ladpalwan toll plaza, where farmers paid homage to him, and then taken to his native village for the last rites, Kothi said.
"He wasn't sure how many more farmers would die in the ongoing struggle and wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately scrap the farm laws," Kothi said.
Lok Bhalai Insaf Party also gave a memorandum to the Punjab government on behalf of Samyukt Kisan Morcha, Pathankot district, demanding 10 lakh compensation for the family of the deceased and a government job for the next of kin, besides renaming the toll plaza as Shaheed Sucha Singh Kokhar toll plaza.