‘The MLA has money, muscle, he can kill me but I am educated so I must fight’

Chinchpur is just 200 km from Yavatmal where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unveiled his first package for debt-ridden farmers of Vidarbha today.

As first reported in The Indian Express on June 30, so high is the Sanandas’ reach that no less than Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh came out in support of them, even though police records show over 40 cases registered against them for illegal money-lending, land-grabbing to kidnapping, manhandling to torture.

The Indian Express tracked Kavadkar to his home at Chinchpur, a tiny village of 4,000 people close to Khamgaon, home of the Sanandas, where the approach road can only be accessed by bullock-cart.

Khavadkar said that in June 2002, when he needed money for his farm, he borrowed Rs 40,000 from Gokulchand Sananda, the MLA’s father, at an interest rate of 48 per cent per annum.

‘‘Up to March 3, 2003, I had paid Rs 95,000 to the Sanandas. But Sananda and his men continued to demand money. On February 27, 2004, Sananda’s agents reached my home, threatened me and forcibly took

Rs 80,000,’’ alleged Khavadkar in his police complaint.

According to the complaint, the terror didn’t stop there. ‘‘They are still harassing me for money…I am fed up with this torture. I have returned much more than what I borrowed. I have handwritten receipts. I need protection.’’

But the very next day after the FIR was filed, the CMO intervened. First, his secretary called up the police station asking them not to take action against the MLA and his family. Then on June 1, Vilasrao Deshmukh called a meeting of the Buldhana district collector Ganesh Thakur and Assistant Police Inspector Ganesh Ane in Mumbai to tick them off for ‘‘registering cases without proper investigation.’’

While MLA Sananda admits he is close to the chief minister, he claims he is being targeted by the Opposition and local police.

But the committee, comprising tehsildar U B Rathod, Assistant Registrar of Cooperation and Ane, has clearly stated in its FIR that Gokulchand Sananda and his associates are involved in the illegal business (of money-lending).’‘‘When the Sanandas came to know of my complaint and realised the police was going to arrest their father, they started using pressure tactics. I cannot tell you what they did, but believe me it was a horrible experience,’’ Khavadkar told The Sunday Express.

But Khavadkar, father of a software developer son and two daughters who study in Pune, is firm on his stand. He gathers courage from his belief in education— ‘‘only education can help farmers to come out of poverty’’— and his 75-year-old mother Durgabai who told him: ‘‘Shambhar varshe kutryapramane lachar jivan jagnyapeksha char divas vaghasarkhe jagane bare (It is better to live like a tiger for a few days than spend a life of hundred years in slavery).’’

But Durgabai doesn’t hesitate to admit she is scared. ‘‘Sanandas are famous for their torture. That’s why I was shocked when I heard about Rajendra’s complaint. But I believe in God, he will take care of us.’’