Rs1 lakh relief for Pune farmer’s kin

Eleven days after 32-year-old farmer Hiralal Khabale of Indapur taluka in Pune district hanged himself to death, Pune district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh has finally decided to pay a compensation of Rs1 lakh to family of the deceased.

Although, Khabale ended his life on December 2 allegedly due to indebtedness and crop-failure, police had initially registered a case of accidental death, and not of suicide as they didn’t find a suicide note, little realising that the deceased was illiterate.

A decision on the compensation was taken after a team of state government officials led by the tehsildar of Indapur submitted its fact-finding inquiry report to Deshmukh on Thursday. “The report pointed out that Khandale’s death was a case of suicide and the compensation has to be given as per state policy,” Deshmukh said.

Farmer suicides are rare in Pune district, which is considered far more prosperous than districts in Vidarbha and Marathwada.