A 49-year-old farmer from Hisar, Haryana, on Sunday allegedly hanged himself from a tree about 7km from the Tikri protest site on Delhi’s border.
Police said Rajbir has left a suicide note in which he has blamed the three new farm laws brought by the Centre for his death. He has appealed to the government to fulfil his last wish and repeal the laws.
“Rajbir hailed from a village in Hisar district. He was found hanging from a tree,” Bahadurgarh city police station SHO Vijay Kumar said over phone.
Last month, a farmer from Jind in Haryana who was also supporting the agitation against the new farm laws had allegedly hanged himself from a tree 2km from the Tikri border protest site.
Earlier, another farmer from Haryana had allegedly consumed a poisonous substance at the Tikri border. He had died during treatment at a Delhi hospital later.
In December last, a lawyer from Punjab had allegedly killed himself by consuming poison a few kilometres away from the protest site at the Tikri border.
Earlier, Sikh preacher Sant Ram Singh had also allegedly ended his life near the Singhu border protest site, claiming that he was “unable to bear the pain of the farmers”.
Thousands of farmers have been protesting since November last year at Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding the repeal of the farm laws. a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations. However, the Centre has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.
