india

Updated: Jun 22, 2017 13:14 IST

Fed up with alleged harassment meted out by village officials, a farmer committed suicide in front of the village office in Kozhikode district on Wednesday night.

The body of K J Thomas (57) alias Joy was found hanging in front of the village office and a suicide note recovered from the body blamed officials for the death.

Joy’s relatives said officials refused to accept land tax from him citing some excuses and forced him to make many rounds to the office.

Tension gripped Chakittapara village after angry residents prevented police from removing the body. Later, district collector U V Jose rushed to the village and suspended the village assistant P Sireesh and promised action against others. He also directed the officials to accept the tax immediately.

Family members said village officials had been harassing Joy for quite some time saying their registration papers were not there in revenue records.

Last year the family had to stage a dharna outside the office and tax was accepted after the intervention of higher officials. They alleged that officials had sought a heavy bribe from him for correcting the anomalies in revenue records.

A couple of days back, Joy had threatened to commit suicide if village officials continued to harass him like this, but they ignored him.

Joy is survived by his wife and three children.

State revenue minister E Chandrasekharan has sought a report from the district collector.

“The sad incident should have been averted. We will not leave officials responsible for this,” he said.

Opposition Congress and BJP called a shutdown in the area.

Last year in Thiruvananthapuram a rubber tapper had set fire to a village office after officials delayed title deed of his land for almost eight years.