Son-in-law of Rahul’s Kalavati commits suicide

NAGPUR - The son-in-law of Maharashtra’s Kalavati Bandurkar — the woman cited by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in his speech during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s trust vote in parliament July 28 — committed suicide Friday, a farmers’ organisation said.

“Sanjay Kalaskar, a farmer, was under tremendous pressure to repay the loan he had taken from money lenders and a micro finance institute. His farms had not yielded sufficient crops this year,” said Kishor Tiwari, president of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, an NGO that works for the rights of farmers and their widows.

“He consumed pesticide and ended his life early Friday,” Tiwari added.

Repeated attempts to get in touch with the village police station failed.

Kalaskar, 25, was a resident of Jalka village in Yavatmal district of the state’s Vidarbha region and stayed only a few kilometres away from where Kalavati lives.

After meeting Kalavati in 2009, Gandhi during his speech in the Lok Sabha spoke of her life and how she and her village suffered without electricity, and contended “poverty is directly connected to energy security”.

Kalavti, whose husband too committed suicide, shot to fame after Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha. She was also set to contest 2009 state assembly elections from Wani.

She, however, withdrew her candidature later citing health issues.