Farmer couple ends life

NAGPUR: Frustrated over mounting debt, a couple working as farm labourers committed suicide at Kondhali on Republic Day.
Ashok Rathod (42) and Bebitai (35) owned three acres of agricultural land but it remained barren due to lack of irrigation. The loan was increasing due to interest accruing on it.
It was learnt that the Rathod couple, parents of three children, also had to mortgage their valuables to tide over their financial crisis.
Police said that on the fateful day, the couple worked at a farm along with other labourers. In the evening, Ashok and Bebitai stayed back after everyone else left for home. The couple later went towards the farm of Gopichand Rathod where the well in which they allegedly committed suicide is located.
The family members of Ashok and Bebitai learnt to have searched for the couple till late on Saturday before approaching Kondhali police. Ashok's body was first to be spotted in the well which soon followed by his wife's. The bodies were fished out with the help of fire brigade personnel. Kondhali police have registered a case of accidental death.
Last year, farmer Panjabrao Patil had ended life by consuming poison at Nanadevi village at Mouda tehsil. Patil too was learnt to be overburdened with loans.