Failing to get investment back, farmer hangs himself outside cooperative institution

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Frustrated over a cooperative society's failure to return his fixed deposit, a 46-year-old farmer hanged himself in front of its office in Maharashtra's Beed district on Wednesday, police said.

According to his daughter, Suresh Jadhav, resident of Khalegaon in Georai tehsil, had sold the family's land to raise money for her and her brother's future educational expenses.

Jadhav was found hanging from an iron angle outside the office of Chhatrapati Multistate Co-operative Society in Gevrai town in the early hours of morning.

Police registered an alleged abetment to suicide case against the cooperative society's former chairman, Santosh Bhandari. No arrest has been made in the case yet, an official told PTI.

As per the complaint filed by his wife, Jadhav had invested Rs 11.50 lakh in a fixed deposit with the cooperative society in 2020, and had been pleading with its officials for the return of his money for the last two years as he needed money for the college education of his daughter and son.

"Six months ago, he went to the society’s branch office with a bottle of poison and threatened to end life if the money was not returned,” the First Information Report (FIR) quoted his wife as stating.

The then chairman returned Rs 2.5 lakh and assured that the remaining amount would be paid within two months, but allegedly no payment was made.

On Tuesday, Jadhav visited the Gevrai branch of the society with his wife and two children. According to the FIR, the branch manager behaved rudely and expelled them from the office.

"My father wanted to educate me and my brother. He sold 3.5 acres of land for investing with the cooperative society. We did not get the money back, and also lost our father," Jadhav's daughter Sakshi (21) told PTI after his last rites were carried out.

Sakshi aspires to become a doctor. "I completed my Std 12th from a local college and took a year off to prepare for NEET. I scored 222 marks this year and was planning to enroll for BHMS course. My counseling rounds are about to start. My brother (Shubham, 18) is preparing for JEE," she said.

"My father had dreams for us and sold land we had in Khalegaon. Now we just have one acre of land which has no water....We shifted to Gevrai for our education. My mother stitched blouses and earned money to pay rent," Sakshi added.

When contacted, Beed Superintendent of Police Navneet Kanwat said, "People should invest their money carefully and inquire about the institution where they are planning to invest. Also, investors should not take any extreme steps and instead talk to authorities and police. Police will help in a legal way in such cases."