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Nagpur: Dragging the winter session towards darker shift, an issue of a farmers’ suicide attempt turned serious when the ryot breathed his last on Thursday morning. Pundalik Thakre, a 50-year-old farmer from Ralegaon taluka in Wardha district had attempted suicide on Tuesday afternoon near Vidhan Bhavan during the state legislature’s winter session. The farmer was reportedly part of the protest rally taken out by Aam Admi Party to press for various demands related to farmers. However his membership was categorically denied by prominent AAP member Devendra Wankhede, who narrated the entire incident with Nagpur Today.
Wankhede told Nagpur Today that the deceased farmer was not an AAP member nor he was wearing AAP cap during agitation. Wankhede said Thakre had come to participate in the rally after knowing about it through newspapers. “He was not even standing by the side of the Morcha that we had called. He had consumed some poisonous insecticide and started vomiting. Initially we thought it was a fit but when we took him to Mayo hospital it was learnt that he had consumed insecticide which was mixed into his blood and paralysed his body, he told Nagpur Today.
Wankhede revealed that their party members also had the word with Thakre when he was in the hospital. “He informed us about his problems and his native,” he added saying that doctors informed that the Thakre would be kept under observation, but he could not survive and passed away at around 9.30 am at Mayo hospital.
It may be mentioned that Tuesday’s incident was the second suicide attempt by a farmer within two days, that too near Vidhan Bhavan. On Monday morning, a farmer from Saundanya village in Amravati district, Prashant Deshmukh (30), tried to commit suicide by hanging himself to a tree near Hislop College.
Thakre reportedly consumed a high dose of Organophosphate pesticide and was undergoing treatment at Mayo hospital. He was admitted in the ICU section of the hospital. His actual state of health remained unconfirmed as doctors said Thakre was conscious, while police claimed that the doctors told them that he was not fit for making any statement. By standers in the hospital who saw Thakre when he was being taken to the ICU say he was conscious and kept on vomiting continuously.
