Farmer attempts suicide, live streams act on social media

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 2

A poor marginal farmer of Jeond village here, identified as Saudagar Singh, tried to commit suicide by consuming poisonous substance in his field and live streamed the act on social media on Sunday. He was admitted to hospital in a serious condition in Rampura Phul, where he is undergoing treatment.

Before taking the extreme step, he prepared a video, in which he held 20 persons of the village responsible for this act. He had also demanded action against them. He alleged that he was taking the extreme step as the police were not taking any action against them and was working under political pressure.

In the video, he stated that he was a marginal farmer and some time ago, to pay back his debt, he had sold his land. Then he purchased another five acres of land in the village and started doing farming on it, but some persons of the village were trying to grab it. In a bid to grab the land, they even burnt his stubble, demolished bricks when he started constructing a room in his fields. Moreover, despite repeated complaints to the police, no action had been taken against the accused.

On Monday, the Rampur Sadar police claimed that on Sunday they had registered a case against six persons, including farmer Saudagar Singh, his father and brother, for forcibly trying to grab a land. The police claimed that after the registration of a case, the farmer on Sunday tried to commit suicide by consuming poisonous substance and now was undergoing treatment in the hospital.

The police received a complaint from Malkit Singh of Jeond village, in which he stated that on November 30, accused Surjit Singh, Chamkaur Singh, Saudagar Singh, former sarpanch Mela Singh, Rajwinder Singh and Jarnail Singh, residents of Jeond village, jointly tried to grab his 10 acres of land in the village.

Rampura Sadar police station SHO Bhupinderjit Singh said Saudagar Singh, along with the other accused, had tried to grab the land of complainant Malkit Singh. They registered a case after conducting a probe into the incident.