Over a month after his under-construction house sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) was demolished by the Forest officials, Dhyan Singh Daver (45), an Adivasi from Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district, allegedly died by suicide on Tuesday afternoon. He hanged himself from a tree near a makeshift tent that the family was using as a shelter, prompting the Khargone collector to order a magisterial probe. As the news of Dhyan Singh’s death spread, members of Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS) staged a protest, blocking a road by placing the body, demanding that a case of abetment to suicide be registered against the forest officials. They lifted the blockade only after Khargone District Collector Kumar Purshottam ordered a magisterial inquiry to be conducted by Kasrawad Sub-Divisional Magistrate Agrim Kumar with a 15-day deadline to submit the report. “Based on the findings of the report, action will be taken against those found guilty,” said Purshottam. Dhyan Singh of Navalpura village in Khargone’s Kasrawad took the extreme step when his wife and son had gone to the collectorate to respond to a September 19 show-cause notice issued by the Forest Department. The notice stated that he was encroaching upon 0.010 hectares of forestland — a violation of Section 26 (1) of the Indian Forest Act-1927. Dhyan Singh was asked to submit his reply by October 26 as to why further action should not be taken against him. Speaking to The Indian Express, Dhyan Singh’s son Raju said their family of five had been living in a makeshift house on the forestland in Navalpura for the past six years. Two months ago, they were sanctioned a house under PM Awas Yojana and also received two instalments of Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000, he said. However, the under-construction house was demolished in the last week of September, Raju said. “Forest officials came, assaulted my parents and demolished our partially constructed house. We tried to reach out to the district administration but no one paid heed. We did not cut any tree; we were living there like 15-20 others are,” he said. Raju alleged that the notice was issued to them only after the house was demolished. On Tuesday afternoon, Raju, a daily wager, and his mother Ramti Bai had gone to Khargone to meet a lawyer to file a reply to the notice. “We had just reached there when I got a call from my grandfather that my father had hanged himself from a tree. My father had called my grandfather to tell him that he was tired of the ongoing harassment,” said Raju. Dayaram Korku, a tribal leader affiliated with JAYS, said: “After the family was assaulted in September, they were also pressured to not report the matter. We also got them medically examined that confirmed minor injuries.” On September 30, JAYS in-charge of Khargone district Kolu Khode wrote to the authorities for permission to stage a protest against the assault on the family and demolition of their house. “The officials did not grant us permission to protest and kept on dilly-dallying a discussion on demolition of Dhyan Singh’s house,” said Korku. Meanwhile, the family was given a monetary aid of Rs 25,000 through the Red Cross.
