MP: Two farmers commit suicide in Khargone, Khandwa

Two more farmers committed suicide in Khargone and Khandwa on Saturday, the police said. The deceased were identified as Mithun Koli, 26, of Barud village in Khargone and Madhav Singh Chouhan, 52, of Purni village. The police recovered Chouhan's body from a hotel room in Khandwa.

Two more farmers committed suicide in Khargone and Khandwa on Saturday, the police said.

The deceased were identified as Mithun Koli, 26, of Barud village in Khargone and Madhav Singh Chouhan, 52, of Purni village. The police recovered Chouhan's body from a hotel room in Khandwa.

The Barud police said Mithun allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide after failing to repay a loan of Rs 5 lakh.

The elder brother of the deceased, Deepak Koli, informed the police that Mithun, who posessed five acres of land in Barud, had taken a loan of Rs 1.52 lakh from a bank and borrowed around Rs 3.5 lakh from a cooperative society on high interest rates.

On the heels of recent rains that damaged his crops, he went into depression, his elder brother said.

"He was solely dependent on agriculture and the recent unseasonal rain damaged his crops following which he committed suicide," Deepak said. Barud police assistant sub-inspector RN Mishra said investigation in the matter was on. "During preliminary investigation, we have found that the reason for the suicide is crop damage but the police will investigate the matter to see if there were some other issues," Mishra said.

Khandwa city superintendent of police Abhishek Diwan said they had received a call from a hotel about foul smell coming from Room No 3 where Chouhan was staying for the past two-and-a-half years. Diwan said they found Chouhan's body lying on the floor of the room and after preliminary investigation, it appeared that the body was two-day-old.

Chouhan's daughter Seema Pawar told the police that after a family dispute, while her father began to live in a hotel, the rest of the family lived in Anand Nagar. Pawar said her father earlier owned 60 acres land in Purni village which got submerged in Indira Sagar dam project.

Though he got compensation for the land, he was not satisfied with the money he got, as two of his sisters also claimed their share in it.

The police have registered a case and are investigating the matter.

With these two suicides, the death toll of farmers in western Madhya Pradesh during the last fortnight has mounted to six. Earlier, on March 14, a farmer committed suicide in Barud village followed by one more farmer in Nanpur, Alirajpur district on March 16. On March 23, bodies of two farmers were recovered in Alote, Ratlam district and Dhar, respectively, under mysterious circumstances.

Sources said in the aftermath of the recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm, a large number of farmers in western MP couldn't repay their loans as they lost their crops.