Farmer with family threatens to commit suicide outside Karnataka secretariat
A farmer named Ashwath Reddy has alleged that he was cheated of Rs 15 lakh by a retired forest officer in Karnataka in 2008
FollowBengaluru: A 38-year-old farmer, from Raagihalli in Anekul taluk, along with his wife and son, threatened to commit suicide outside the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Friday morning.
Ashwath Reddy, his wife Nagaratna and their only son, Sanjay Reddy, alleged that a retired forest officer had cheated them of Rs 15 lakh. According to a statement given to the police by Reddy, it all started in April 2008, when the then forest officer of Anekal, HV Sathyanarayana, asked Reddy to let him borrow his tractor to transport items such as wooden logs. However, the trip turned out to be a major disaster, when the tractor tumbled near a ditch, due to which Hari Prasad, a worker, sustained major injuries and later died at a hospital, leaving two other workers with fractured legs.
Reddy also claimed that he had approached Sathyanarayana for financial help thereafter, and he was given Rs 40,000 and promised that the hospital expenses would be taken care of. By the end of that year, the costs borne by Reddy reached Rs 15 lakh. Reddy was forced to borrow money from relatives and friends and later sold his 2.5 acre farmland to clear a part of the loan. Reddy complained that the loan now stood at a staggering amount of Rs 60 lakh.
Sathyanarayana has denied the claims made by Reddy. Reddy stated that since he is now left with nothing to sell, he decide to commit suicide with his family outside the Vidhana Soudha to ensure that their deaths would be seen by the public and that Sathyanarayana would be punished.
Police have detained the family and have decided to proceed with the case based on legal opinion.
