A Dalit farmer, who reportedly consumed some “poisonous substance” after being ‘detained’ by a moneylender, who was demanding repayment of a loan of ₹10,000, at Daniyalapadu in Yellandu mandal on Monday, died at a hospital in Khammam on Wednesday.
The police identified the deceased as 45-year-old Darelli Yesu, a small farmer of Daniyalapadu.
Sources said Yesu had borrowed ₹10,000 loan from a local kirana storekeeper and moneylender K. Lakshminarayana to meet farming related expenses a couple of months ago.
Lakshminarayana had started pestering Yesu to return the money ever since the latter had sold his harvested cotton crop in November.
The moneylender reportedly summoned Yesu to his shop on Monday evening and locked him up in a room without heeding to the latter’s request for some time to repay the loan.
Apparently perturbed by the humiliation of being ‘detained’, Yesu drank a ‘poisonous substance’ and collapsed on the premises of the kirana shop late on Monday evening. He was shifted to a private hospital in Khammam the same night.
He died during the course of treatment at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
Yesu is survived by a wife and son.
The Yellandu police booked Lakshminarayana under the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and various other sections of the IPC.
The police are on the lookout for the accused, who is at large.
