A farmer, N Prakash Reddy of Pattapur village under Sanakhemundi block in Ganjam district, allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison on Wednesday.
Sources said Reddy had gone on Tuesday to sell his paddy in the market; but when he did not return home till late night, his family members started a frantic search for him.
Later, he was found dead near a farmland in the morning.
Although the exact reason behind Reddy’s death is yet to be ascertained, his family members alleged that he committed suicide by consuming poison.
They alleged that he had taken Rs 50,000 loan from moneylenders for cultivating his land. However, he suffered crop failure and was under immense mental duress. Unable to bear the trauma, he took the extreme step, they said.
However, police and other officials are yet to reach the spot for investigations.
In a similar incident on Sunday, a debt-ridden farmer of Samasingha village under Kolabira block in Jharsuguda district reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope inside his house. The deceased Yudhistir Mallik (48) was a sharecropper.