Hyderabad: A farmer and his son committed suicide at Dubbak near Siddipet as the value of their land came down drastically after the currency demonetisation.
The entire family — the farmer, his wife and his two sons — have consumed pesticide. While two of them died, the farmer’s wife and second son have been admitted to hospital in a critical condition.
Dubbak police officials said that the farmer, Varada Galaiah, 60, had mixed pesticide in chicken curry and fed the same to his family and consumed it himself.
Police officials said Galaiah had to repay a huge loan that he had taken from moneylenders for his daughter’s marriage a year back. He was trying to sell his five-acre agricultural land in Dharmaram village to pay off the debt. Last month he had received an offer of '12 lakh but he decided to wait for a better offer. But after the demonetisation, the price of his land went down by more than 50 per cent of the previous offer, cops said.
“We got to know that he was trying to sell his property to pay back his debts. The value of his land came down by half after demonitisation and that must have depressed him. We are investigating this angle,” said Siddipet ACP G. Narasimha Reddy, adding that there were also other hurdles for him in selling the land due to lack of consensus among his children.
‘Strange smell’ saved two lives
To make matters worse, after his daughter’s marriage, Galaiah’s crops had failed in July. “Also, his married daughter had to undergo a surgery recently. Since his son-in-law was financially weak, Galaiah had to find money to pay for the surgery. He was troubled about the financial situation and believed he had no other way out,” said Dubbak inspector R. Niranjan.
Police authorities said that Galaiah’s wife V. Bala Lakshmi and his second son V. Prashant were not aware of the pesticide that was mixed in the chicken curry. Both ate only a little due to the strange smell which was emanating from the dish. Officials said this is why they had survived.
Galaiah’s first son Balaiah ate a significant portion and he died along with his father. “His son was asking him why the curry was smelling bad. Galaiah said the smell was from his clothes, since he had come back from the field, and not from the curry,” said Inspector Niranjan. Police officials have launched a probe into the incident.
