Yavatmal farmer’s kin refuse to cremate body

NAGPUR/YAVATMAL: Demanding Rs1 crore compensation and a visit by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the family and relatives of Shankar Chayare have refused to allow the post mortem at Yavatmal Government Medical College and Hospital, and said they would not cremate the body until their demands are met.
Chayare, a farmer from Rajurwadi village of Yavatmal district, committed suicide after allegedly leaving a note blaming the Narendra Modi government of failing to help farmers, on Tuesday.This is the second suicide where the deceased left a note blaming the Modi government.
In another development, Chayare’s eldest daughter Jayashree filed a police complaint against Narendra Modi at Ghatanji police station. The police, however, have not registered an FIR.
Fadnavis is scheduled to visit Yavatmal but for a function to inaugurate new premises of Yavatmal Urban Cooperative Bank in the town. A visit to Rajurwadi may be planned at the eleventh hour, said sources in the CMO.
Meanwhile, the police have taken into custody activists like Devanand Pawar and others as a pre-emptive measure suspecting that they may create disturbances during Fadnavis’s visit on Thursday.
The police are yet to verify authenticity of the suicide note purportedly written by Shankar Chayare. The letter cannot be confirmed to have been written by the deceased himself, say the sleuths. It was not found on his body or at the scene of crime. The note was handed over later to the police by a relative.
The sleuths find this as a major reason to doubt its authenticity. The cops have also found discrepancies in the handwriting as well as the ink within the letter itself.
Yavatmal SP M Rajkumar said the letter will be sent to the departmental handwriting expert. It cannot be directly taken as an evidence as the letter was not found on the body or at the scene of crime. Kumar said discrepancies appeared within the lines of the letter itself, which will be finally examined by the expert.
The letter has a long list of persons including Fadnavis, Union minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir, Kishore Tiwari, a farm activist, and others seeking help. A small line blames Narendra Modi government for his condition, said Kumar.
A similar incident had created furore last year when a farmer Prakash Mangaokar in neighbouring Titwi village had committed suicide blaming the Modi government. Kumar said in the earlier case, it could not be ascertained if the suicide note was written by the deceased. The note was written on a leaf and not paper due to which it could not be properly examined, he said.
“In Chayare’s case, so far not even a matter of accidental death has been registered. To register a case, a panchnama has to be prepared and post mortem done,” he said.
Sources said the kin are not cooperating in preparing the panchnama which is basically a statement of witnesses and insisting on a compensation of Rs1 crore.
The hospital authorities have maintained that unless the panchnama is done, post mortem will not take place.
Kishore Tiwari, chairman of state government’s think tank on agrarian crisis, visited the family. The kin insisted that the chief minister should listen to their grievances,” informed Tiwari. The family has stuck to its stance and has not accepted the body from the hospital
Former minister from the Congress Shivajirao Moghe has demanded a government job for one of Chayare’s daughters. He also pointed out that kin of Mangaokar did not get any compensation. The regular aid of Rs1 lakh on account of suicide due to agrarian crisis was recommended by the tehsildar but the collector had turned down the proposal. Leaders of the Maharashtra Navnirnan Sena (MNS) also jumped into the bandwagon seeking aid for the kin.