Farmer suicide to help Mamata’s Singur drive

The Save Land Committee, in fact, conceded the incident would boost their movement that had over time lost steam.

Meanwhile, on Sunday the police confirmed the incident to be a suicide, but at the same time did not rule out foul play. They are looking into the angle of family dispute over the compensation money. The compensation cheque was in the name of the father of the deceased, Mahadeb Das. 

“We have received the post-mortem report. All evidence found till now point at suicide. But, we will also look into whether there was any foul play was involved. Since it is the family members of the deceased who first saw him hanging and brought him down, we are talking to them,” said Anuj Sharma, DIG, Burdwan Range.

Becharam Manna, the convener of Singur Krishi Jami Banchaon Committee, said the farmer’s suicide would be a new weapon in their agitation against the Tata Motors’ small car project. “Prasanta committed suicide because he was depressed that his land was taken away by the government. He has become an example for the local youth. His death will be the main issue, on the basis of which we will continue our agitation and motivate more villagers to come out in protest,” said Manna.

Member of the Save Land Committee admitted that support for the movement was dwindling and in recent times the participation by the locals had been rather poor. The local administration, however, was confident that the project would not suffer. Work on the project has gained momentum with nearly 2,000 people engaged in it.