Two farmers who were arrested in connection with a cheque-bounce case got bail from a local court, officials said here on Thursday.
Tularam Murya and Sukhdas were presented in the court of JMFC (Judicial Magistrate First Class) JM Bhagat, who granted them bails.
Notably, both the farmers were arrested for non-payment of loan. The arrest had triggered criticism as the ruling Congress party after coming to power had claimed to have waived off farm loans.
However, the two farmers had denied taking loan and later it was found that they were not the defaulters but were victims of a suspected forgery.
“Prima-facie documents produced by farmers and based on evidences we have collected so far, it seems that they were duped by someone else,” Dr Ayyaz Tamboli district Collector Bastar told The Pioneer.
According to Dr Tamboli, the district administration has asked both farmers to make a written complaint with the police so that the forgery angel could be investigated.
“Tularam Maurya in 2009 had taken loan of about Rs 3 lakh from agriculture development branch of the SBI through the Kisan Credit Card. He had got Rs 2.30 lakh for installing drip irrigation and Rs 60,000 for installing fencing,” the Collector said while adding Sukhdas also had taken loan for same works.
“We are also expanding the area of our investigation and have sought information from horticulture department to check if more farmers have been duped in such a fashion,” he added.
It may be recalled that the State Bank of India, agriculture development branch had filed a case under Negotiable Instrumentation Act 1881 section 138 against the farmers Tularam Maurya and Sukhdas after their cheques bounced.
On the directive of District Collector, SDM J. R. Markam had carried out the initial probe and district administration had provided legal assistance to the farmers.