A debt-ridden farmer at Jalka village in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a lake.
It is the same village where Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had called on Kalavati Bandurkar, whose farmer husband had committed suicide because of debt, in 2009.The visit had generated a lot of publicity.
The present incident took place on January 28, and the man's body was fished out yesterday, police said.
The deceased farmer, Ashok Janrao Koychade (42), is survived by his parents, wife and four minor daughters.
Locals said that Koychade had taken a loan of over Rs 50,000 from the Yavatmal District Central Co-Operative Bank, but was finding it difficult to make repayments because of the crop failure over the last four years.
The bank had issued him notice in this regard. Bank Chairman Manish Patil confirmed that Koychade had been issued notice twice, and was deemed a defaulter.
Though the administration had declared 'wet drought' in the district due to the excessive rains last monsoon, no instruction as to stoppage of loan recovery had been received, Patil claimed.
District Collector Ashvin Mudgal said he had sought a report on the matter from the tehsildar.
He said there was no instruction from the state authorities about stopping the farm loan recoveries.
