Paikamal, Nov 4: Yet another farmer of this block in Bargarh district Wednesday committed suicide by hanging from the roof of his home due to alleged crop loss and debt burden.
The deceased was identified as Bishnu Marhi (48) of Bijadihi village of Keremelabahal panchayat under the local police limits.
According to sources, the farmer borrowed Rs 65,000 to raise paddy in his 12 acres of land. He was under stress over repayment of loan after his crops failed due to poor monsoon. Bishnu Wednesday came back home from his farmland and took the extreme step. He bolted the room from inside as he found no one in the house.
Bishnu’s wife Banabasi, who had gone out, came back and raised an alarm seeing the door closed from inside. The villagers broke open the door only to find the hanging body of the farmer.
Bishnu had taken Rs12,000 from Padmapur branch of SBI and another Rs50,000 from money lenders, Banabasi said. Her husband was under constant mental strain for a long time due to crop loss and debt burden, she said. Bishnu went to his paddy field during wee hours and she couldn’t talk to him after that, the wife said.
Paikamal police registered a case of unnatural death and sent the body for post-mortem. Sub-inspector Jagannath Panda started an inquiry into the death.
Padmapur MLA Pradip Purohit expressed condolence over the death and demanded a compensation of Rs10 lakh for the bereaved family. Bishnu has a daughter who got married earlier.
Earlier, Srikant Mahananda of Sapalahar , Shankar Bariha of Sadanandapur and Hiralal Sahoo of Nuapara villages under this block had committed suicide by consuming pesticides over alleged loss of crops and debt burden.
