A young graduate engineer-turned-farmer allegedly committed suicide in Burdwan district as his potato crop failed to earn him profit, taking the number of farmer suicides in West Bengal this year to 12.
The police have confirmed the death of 27-year-old Probin Kumar Laha at his home in Memari. Probin was a graduate mechanical engineer from the prestigious Jadavpur University. However, unable to get a job, he had become a farmer and had grown potato in five bighas of land, his father Gangadhar Laha, a retired school teacher, said.
But with the price of the tuber plummeting in the state spurred by a bumper harvest this year, Probin had become depressed and hanged himself in his room last night before dinner. He was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, his father said.
Memari block development officer Ranu Mondal said he was looking into the incident.
With this death, the toll of farmer suicides rose to 12 in the state, nine in Burdwan district in about a month. Two other such incidents took place in Malda and one in Jalpaiguri district. - PTI
Probin was a graduate mechanical engineer from Jadavpur University. He had taken up farming when he did not get a job
