Maha: Farmer ends life on day son recites poem against suicide

A 35-year-old farmer allegedly

committed suicide by consuming poison in Ahmednagar's Pathardi tehsil on Thursday evening, hours after his son read out a poem in school asking farmers not to commit suicide due to agricultural distress, police said.

Malhari Batule, a resident of Bharajwadi, had a couple of loans outstanding, and the monthly installments of his stolen truck were also pending, all of which were causing him immense distress, a Pathardi police station official said.

"He had taken money for his sister's marriage. On Thursday evening he consumed poison and died while undergoing treatment in a nearby hospital," he said.

"On the same day, his son Prashant Batule had recited a poem in school, on the occasion of Marathi Language Day (February 27) asking farmers not to commit suicide," said the official.