Three more farmers in MP commit suicide; toll 19

Bhopal: Three more tillers committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, even as the state government denied that mounting debts had driven them to take the extreme step. The latest incidents were reported from the districts of Sehore, Sagar and Chattarpur. With this, the toll in Madhya Pradesh climbs to 19 in the last three weeks.

According to reports, 52-year-old Satrughna Meena, resident of Gawdia village under chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s assembly constituency of Budni in Sehore district, consumed sulphas tablets late on Wednesday evening reportedly to escape harassment by a local money lender from whom he had borrowed Rs 5 lakh. The police however suspected a family dispute might have driven him to take extreme step.

Another debt-ridden farmer, Gului Kurmi (50) of Basahari village under Sagar district, ended his life by hanging himself in a tree in his field late on Wednesday night. A purported suicide not left by him alleged harassment by the money lender.

Similarly, one Mahesh Tiwari (75), a farmer of Luvkushnagar in Chattarpur district committed suicide by hanging himself in an abandoned house in his locality on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.