Kalawati’s son-in-law kills self over debt

Sanjay Kalaskar, son-in-law of Kalawati Bandurkar, a farmer widow from Maharashtra, who became the face of the distressed farmers in a Rahul Gandhi speech in Parliament, committed suicide due to acute financial crisis. Pradip Kumar Maitra reports.

Sanjay Kalaskar, son-in-law of Kalawati Bandurkar, a farmer widow from Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, who became the face of the distressed farmers in a Rahul Gandhi speech in Parliament, committed suicide due to acute financial crisis at Kothoda village, some 200 kms from Nagpur on Friday.

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According to reports, Kalaskar (25) consumed pesticide and ended his life on Friday morning. He was married to the youngest daughter of Kalawati and is survived by a two-year-old daughter.

Kishore Tiwari, of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, claimed that Sanjay was buried under debts and his farm yield wasn’t adequate this season. As a result, he could not repay loans he had taken from money lenders and local cooperative bank.

Neither the district collector, Sanjay Deshmukh nor Kalwati was available for comments.

Kalawati (54), shot into limelight when Congress scion Rahul Gandhi visited her Jalka residence and interacted with her. Her husband, Parashuram, a debt-ridden farmer had committed suicide in December 2005, leaving her to feed nine mouths and repay a Rs 1 lakh loan. But this tragedy brought Rahul Gandhi to her doorstep and fueled his impassioned speech, with reference to her, in the Parliament. Help rushed to her doorstep, and it was enough to repay her loan, marry off her daughters and construct a four room house at Jalka.