Dalit couple in debt commits ‘suicide’

Pal’s uncle Shivraj,who is also a neighbour,informed the police on Wednesday morning about the incident. According to the police,Shivraj told them that on Tuesday night,when he was about to sleep,he heard noises from Pal’s house.

When he rushed there ,he found the couple vomiting. They allegedly told Shivraj that they had consumed poison. Shivraj took them to a nearby hospital where doctors declared them dead on arrival.

The police went to the hospital and sent the bodies for postmortem. As the report failed to reach any conclusion,the viscera have been preserved.

Pal,who had four children,was a resident of Parsa village and had 15 acres of land. Preliminary investigation by the administration revealed that he had taken loans worth Rs 11 lakh from four banks against his land. Two of them had issued “recovery challans” against him for not paying up on time.

“We had come to know that Ameen was regularly making rounds of his house,” said Devi Dayal,in-charge of the Dhaurahra police station. He added that Pal had also taken a loan of Rs 69,000 in the name of his wife from a local bank.

“We will investigate how Dharam Pal managed to get loans from various banks,” said District Magistrate S Verma. The lead bank manager of the district has been directed to compile a record of Pal’s loans and send it to the state government.

Several officials,including Principal Secretary (Home) Fateh Bahadur Singh,have visited the spot.

The state government has announced that Rs 1 lakh will be deposited for each of Pal’s four children. A total of Rs 20,000 has also been given to his family under the National Family Welfare Scheme,said Sub-Divisional Magistrate Lal Bahadur.

The government has also asked the district administration to write off Pal’s loans and free his land. The administration has given the custody of the minor children to Pal’s mother. She has been sanctioned old age pension and the district magistrate has been asked to provide her an Antyodaya Card.