A day after 61-year-old farmer Brijpal Singh tried to kill himself by setting himself on fire during a protest organized by the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) in Muzaffarnagar, he said that he was forced to take the extreme step due to overwhelming burden of a bank loan, a struggle shared by many farmers across India.
“Kaun apna shareer jalana chahta hai? Thodi si ungli jal jaaye toh insaan dard se karah uthata hai. Ye sab bahut accha nahi lagta hai, lekin hum majboor hain, kyuki hum kisan hain (Who wants to set fire to his own body? Even a minor burn on the finger is so painful. It does not look good, but I am so helpless, because I am a farmer),” Singh told The Indian Express.
Brijpal is a native of Jitpur Ghari village of Muzaffarnagar district.
Singh explained how he fell victim to a deceptive scheme orchestrated by an individual named Amar Pal, who claimed to be a representative of the Punjab National Bank (PNB). The farmer said that he met Pal, who called himself a ‘Field Officer’ of PNB, in October 2016.
Pal promised Singh a tractor loan and facilitated the purchase of a tractor worth Rs 7.50 lakh, with Singh contributing Rs 5 lakh and expecting the remaining Rs 2.50 lakh to be financed by the bank.
“I was happy to get the tractor as it made things easier. In the meantime, I paid the remaining Rs 2.50 lakh. But everything turned upside down, when I received a notice from the bank to pay the installments on Rs 5.63 lakh loan,” said Singh.
However, Singh soon discovered that Pal had betrayed his trust by absconding with the money without securing the promised loan from the bank.
“I got to know that I have been defrauded when I visited the PNB branch in Budhana in 2017 where they showed me the papers with my signatures and personal documents,” the distressed farmer said.
Singh also said that Pal had also defrauded nine women from the village, promising them loans under the guise of a ‘Kalyani Card’ scheme for small businesses. “He collected documents of nine women from the village for ‘Kalyani Card’ and said that each one of them would get Rs 1 lakh loan to start their own small business,” according to Singh.
Despite repeated inquiries, Pal evaded accountability, leaving the women burdened with loan repayment notices from the bank. Pal siphoned off all the loans in the name of illiterate women, Singh alleged.
Singh said that this was his second attempt to immolate himself.
Following the incident of self-immolation on Wednesday, City Magistrate Vikash Kashyap visited Singh at the hospital, and told that his issue would be addressed soon, according to PTI.
BKU district president Yogesh Sharma had said Brijpal tried to commit suicide because he was not getting any solution to his problem and was worried about getting a notice from the Punjab National Bank despite never getting a loan from that bank.