Farmer's 'suicide note' sent to experts to verify authenticity

The suicide note purportedly written by a debt-ridden farmer, who allegedly ended his life in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region yesterday, has been sent to handwriting experts to verify its authenticity, a senior police official said today.

The farmer, Shankar Chayare (50), who hailed from Yavatmal district in Vidarbha killed himself by consuming a poisonous chemical, apparently due to crop-loss, the official said.

According to the police, the note mentions the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and holds him responsible for the suicide.

The official said the police did not recover the note from the spot, but his daughter submitted it to them last night.

"The purported suicide note was submitted by Chayare's daughter Jayashree to Ghatanji police last night after it was circulated on social media," Ganesh Bhavsar, in-charge of the Ghatanji police station, told PTI.

"In the two-page note, PM Modi's name was written on the second page. Some sentences in the note have been struck out and some letters in the note are not written in a uniform style. Therefore, we have sent this note to the forensic sciences department to the handwriting experts," Bhavsar said.

"We have collected various documents from the deceased farmer's residence, in which his handwriting is available. That handwriting will be matched with the one in the suicide note," he added.

Talking to PTI, Yavatmal Superintendent of Police M Rajkumar said, "The police have sent the purported suicide note to handwriting experts to verify its authenticity."