Samajwadi Party (SP) State president Rabi Behera on Saturday urged Chairman of the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) to order an inquiry into the alleged suicidal death of flour mill owner Benudhara Singh of Cuttack as he failed to pay the electric bill. Behera in his memorandum to the Chairman said Singh of Kantabada village on the outskirts of the city had a flour mill at Nimchoudi in Cuttack city. There was a pending electricity bill of around Rs 60,000 on his mill. Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) employees forced him to pay the dues before March 31 or else to face line disconnection.
The memorandum stated that the mill owner begged of the Cesu officials to give him time to pay the bill in instalments, but they did not pay any heed to his appeal and disconnected the line. The man lost his livelihood and had no other alternative to maintain his family.
He lost his mental imbalance and consumed poison, it added. Behera held the Cesu people responsible for the suicide and requested the commission to direct the Cuttack DCP to investigate the case. The party also requested the OHRC to collect Rs 10 lakh from the Cesu authorities as compensation to the family of the deceased.