Farmer dies by suicide in Bengal's rice bowl Bardhaman

A 54-year-old farmer has died by suicide in West Bengal's rice bowl Purba Bardhaman district, police said on Saturday.

Tapas Bhattacharya's family members alleged that he consumed pesticide at his home in Basuda village in Bhatar police station area on Friday after incurring agricultural losses and failing to repay debts, an officer said.

Preliminary investigation found the failure to repay debts to be the reason behind the extreme step, and a case of unnatural death has been registered, he said.

Jagannath Chatterjee, Deputy Director of Agriculture, however, claimed that there is no record of crop failure and there might be other reasons behind the suicide.

Family sources said that the deceased's both sons lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

''My brother had suffered crop failures for two consecutive years and failed to repay the loans,'' the deceased's brother Prasad Bhattacharya said.