A farmer, Birsai Oraon, 65, died under suspicious circumstances and was found hanging from a tree near his filed a few meters away from his house at Andhradih village in Gumla on Monday. Oraon, allegedly went out of his house to relive himself at around 9 pm on Saturday but did not return afterwards.
“Oraon, according to his wife, had a dispute with her on the issue of buying a pair of ox for tilling their filed, but the wife was insisting on getting their filed tilled by tractor, following which he went out to attend nature’s call and did not return after wards,” said Ghahra BDO Vijay Soni. Meanwhile, financial assistance of Rs 20,000 has already been given to the family while rest of the benefits under the provisions of law will be provided to them as soon as possible, he added.
The BDO said that when Oraon did not return on Saturday, his wife informed the other villagers who went to the place where they used to go for relieving themselves, but all in vain, and they returned back. He was later found hanging from a tree on Monday morning when some of the ladies had gone to fetch water from the well located in Oraon’s filed.
“Reasons for suicide were still not clear, while a UD case has been filed and investigations have been initiated in this regard,” said the officer in charge of Ghaghra Police Station. Villager’s claimed that he never had any dispute with his wife and never used to drink, he added. Prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide, he added.
Following alleged death of the fourth farmers during the last five weeks in the State, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has demanded the removal of Agriculture Minister, Agriculture Secretary and the Agriculture Director and order judicial inquiry in this regard.
“Farmer’s not getting minimum procurement price for their produce, not getting the benefits of crop insurance, not getting seeds on reasonable
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Another farmer dies in Gumla
prices and even not getting ration and kerosene on time during the last few months reflects the insensitivity of the State Government towards them. The farmer’s family must be given an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh and a government job to his nearest kin,” said the party Spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya.
Incidentally, another farmer Rajdeep Nayak, 32, had died at Medanta Hospital in Ranchi under Ormajhi Police Station on July 2, three days after consuming poison allegedly due to pressure mounted by the bank officials on the family to clear the dues against the loan taken for various reasons. Earlier, Keleshwar Mahto and Baldev Mahto also had allegedly ended their lives by hanging himself and jumping into the well respectively last month after they failed to clear multiple loans taken from the bank and other sources.