CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on 6 June 2022 visited Mau village in Vidyapatinagar, Samastipur District where 5 members of a single family (2 minor children, an aged mother, head of the family and his wife) allegedly committed suicide in a horrifying incident on 5 June. He met relatives of the victims, villagers, local journalists and party activists to apprise himself of the facts of the tragedy. He was accompanied by Bihar State Secretary Kunal, CC member and AIPWA leader Shashi Yadav, AIARLA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha, Samkaleen Lokyuddh Editor Santosh Sahar, Paliganj MLA Sandeep Saurabh, and leaders from Samastipur Surendra Singh and Vandana Singh.
Fact Finding Report
Troubled by financial distress and debts, Mau village (Mau Dakhini Panchayat, Ward No. 11) resident Manoj Jha (45, s/o Ravikant Jha) along with his wife Sundarmani Devi (38), sons Satyam Kumar (9) and Shivam Kumar (7) and mother Sita Devi (65) committed suicide by hanging in a narrow room of their dilapidated house. The only surviving members of their family are 2 married daughters Kajal and Nibha Jha.
Deceased Manoj Jha's elder daughter Kajal's husband Govind Jha told the enquiry team that his father-in-law used to earn his livelihood and sustain his family by plying an auto daily morning and evening between Vidyapatinagar and Dalsinghserai, and selling 'khaini' in the tiny village bazaar during the day. He had even purchased a new autorickshaw but that was snatched away from him by his creditor as he was unable to repay the money. After that he bought a pick-up van for goods transport by taking a loan from a finance company on 17 or 18 installments. But recently he had to sell this vehicle as he was unable to pay the installments.
Govind Jha also said that 5 years ago in 2017 when Manoj had conducted his daughter's marriage, his condition was not so miserable. He never spent money on unnecessary things. He must have spent 1.5 lakhs at the maximum on his first daughter's marriage. The second daughter Nibha's marriage was conducted just 2 months ago this year in a very simple way in a temple.
Govind Jha further said that Mannu Jha, a neighbour and also a dominant person in the village, used to talk about lending money to Manoj Jha. He used to say that the initial loan amount he had lent Manoj Jha had by now increased to Rs 17-18 lakhs. In this context Mannu Jha had badly beaten up and insulted Manoj's father Ravikant Jha, who died 6 months ago. Govind Jha said Mannu Jha's claim is false. He pointed to the dilapidated house and said, if the loan had been a huge amount like 17 lakhs, would this be the condition of the house? He said that the local unit of a finance company had given a loan of a few thousand rupees, and recently they had also come and badly threatened Manoj Jha.
Manoj Jha's sister Reena Jha said that Mannu Jha used to often beat and misbehave with her brother under the excuse of loan repayment. Recently he took away all the household goods from Manoj's home, including the papers for the 1.5 kattas of land Manoj had purchased a few years ago (the only land property of the family). For the last few days Mannu Jha had made life impossible for Manoj and his family. Manoj's mother along with her grandson had gone to the Panchayat Mukhia Dinesh Singh and Sarpanch Arjun Singh to complain about Mannu Jha's misbehaviour but neither of them took any action. When she went to the Thana to complain about the finance company's threats, they rebuffed her saying that they could not do anything in this matter.
Govind Jha, a resident of Kankarbagh in Patna and a driver in an NGO, said that his father-in-law was in distress since Covid times began. Lockdown-induced livelihood crisis, inflation, the debt trap, and torture by creditors made life unbearable. Speaking on the phone a day prior to the incident, Manoj had said that he would leave the village with his entire family.
CPIML Team’s Conclusions and Demands:
The enquiry team said that in 2014 CPIML had conducted a survey of the poor in various Districts in the State and, identifying the horrifying condition of poor families under the burden of government/moneylender debts, had demanded strongly that the government should organize a drive to free the poor from debt traps. During the pandemic the situation became even worse with micro-finance companies turning the screws, and CPIML and AIPWA protested consistently against this but the government paid no heed.
The enquiry team also expressed doubts if this is really a case of suicide(s) or murder and said that there should be a thorough probe into this and action should be taken against the guilty persons as well as those who should have taken steps but did not do so when the victims complained.
The BJP-JDU government has brought the poor in Bihar to this horrifying situation through governmental/institutional/moneylender debt traps. If an intensive freedom-from-debt campaign is not undertaken immediately, the situation will become even worse. The team also demanded that the government pay Rs 20 lakhs to the victim family and take steps to protect the relatives from harassment by creditors.
CPIML will organize 'Freedom From Debt Day' across the state against this incident on 11 June. The party demands that all loans up to Rs 5 lakhs should be waived.
Details of the enquiry report were given at a press conference in Patna by CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, State Secretary Kunal, Politburo member Dhirendra Jha, legislative party leader Mahboob Alam and Paliganj MLA Sandeep Saurabh.
