<i>Low guava price costs farmer's life</i>
A guava farmer allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a guava tree in his orchard as he failed to pay the lease money to the landowner due to sharp fall in price of the fruit.
The incident took place Friday afternoon at Brammonkati village in Jhalakati district, famous for guava cultivation.
Khirod Chandra, 60, of Madras village leased a guava garden at Tk 1.40 lakh for the current season from Milon Bepari of Brammonkati. He paid Tk 50,000 as advance.
But as harvest began, price of guava fell to Tk 2-5 per kilogram at local wholesale market. His production cost including the lease money was Tk 8-10 per kilogram.
One Friday afternoon garden owner Milon Bepari and his men caught and allegedly assaulted Khirod. They asked him to go to police station with them.
Khirod begged time to change his dress. He went to the guava garden and hanged himself from a tree.
Seeing the unusual delay, Milon and his men thought that Khirod might have fled away. They went to the garden and saw Khirod's body hanging from a guava tree.
Police recovered the body and sent it to Jhalakati Sadar Hospital for autopsy. Police said an unnatural death case has been filed.
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