Threatened by money lenders, a 40-year-old farmer burdened with a debt of Rs 7 lakh tried to commit suicide by setting himself ablaze at Randhal village in Hoshangabad late in the night on Thursday; victim’s condition is critical and has been referred to Bhopal.
The victim farmer identified as Babulal Verma attempted suicide at 3.30 am on Friday and on the receipt of the information Dial 100 rushed reached the spot and took the victim to district hospital where he was referred to Bhopal for treatment.
Verma owns five acres of land which is distributed in his six siblings and he does farming in half an acre. He has two sons, two daughters and wife in his family and constructing house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. He owns MNREGA job card but do not gets labour. For supporting his family he had borrowed Rs 7 lakh.
In the investigation administration has found names of four money lenders. Vinod Sahu of Hoshangabad has provided Rs 3 lakh to the victim, Sandeep of Randhal has provided Rs 20000 and Jaggu of Halpur has provided Rs 50000 to the victim.
The victim took the extreme step after the money lenders visited the house in the night and threatened the victim to lock his house and beat him brutally after which afraid of the threats by the money lenders the victim set himself ablaze.
Within 72 hours after two farmers committed suicide this is third incident of suicide attempt in Hoshangabad district. On Tuesday Makhan lal lowanshi committed suicide by hanging at Bhaironpur and on Wednesday Narmada Prasad of Chaplasar committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance.