Another man poisons himself, unable to irrigate land

Unable to manage water to irrigate their land in the village Nimghatu of Godagari upazila, Rajshahi, Santal farmer Abhinath Marandi poisoned himself. Earlier his cousin Rabi Marandi killed himself in the same manner. Abhinath Marandi died on Friday night at 8:00pm while undergoing treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. The two cousins drank poison on Thursday night, failing to irrigate their paddy field. A pall of gloom has spread around the village following their death.

Director of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital Md Shameem Yazdani told Prothom Ali that the two farmers had died of poisoning.

On Friday night Abhinath Marandi's wife Rozina Hemron filed a case against deep tubewell operator Sakhawat Hossain with Godagari police station, accusing him of inciting suicide. The police took Rozina's signature on a blank piece of paper and filed an unnatural death case.

Earlier in the afternoon Rozina had learnt that no charges were being brought about against the Barendra Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) deep tubewell operator in connection with her husband's death. She went to the Godagari police station where the police made her wait inordinately. Later the convener of the parliamentary caucus for indigenous affairs and Bangladesh Workers Party general secretary Fazle Hossain Badshah went to the police station and assured Rozina Hemron of support. After that the police accepted her case.

Before going to the police station, Rajshahi sadar member of parliament Fazle Hossain Badsha visited the home of Abhinath Marandi in the village Nimghatu of Godagari and consoled his mother Sohagi Soren. Later, speaking to newspersons in front of the Godagari police station, he said Abhinath has been seeking water for irrigation for 12 days and finally told the operator he would take poison and kill himself if he wasn't given water. The operator paid no heed and this pushed him to suicide. The MP later went to the police station and said as soon as the case was filed, the deep tubewell operator Sakhawat Hossain must be arrested.

MP Fazle Hossain Badshah alleged that the ethnic minority groups were discriminated against when it came to supplying water. Such oppression existed in the entire Godagari and Tanore area. He demanded that the government and the human rights commission carry out a high level inquiry into the matter.

Farmers of the village Nimghatu take water from the deep tubewell at Iswarpur in Godagari upazila to irrigate their land. The deep tubewell operator is the local ward Krishak League president Sakhawat Hossain. Though the case has been filed against him, Police have failed to arrest Sakhawat as of Saturday afternoon.

When asked about the matter, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Godagari police station Kamrul Islam said that a case regarding unnatural death has no contradiction with a case for inciting suicide. He said that the accused Sakhawat couldn't be found.