Aligarh: A 50-year-old farmer committed suicide here after being handed a highly-inflated power bill.
According to family members of the victim, officials turned up at Ramji Lal’s house at Sunaira village in Atrauli tehsil and handed over electricity bill of Rs 1,50,000, PTI reported.
When Ramji asked the SDO and junior engineer of the Electricity department why he was slapped such a bill and that he didn’t have the money to pay it, he was allegedly slapped by the officials in front of his family members.
The farmer moved from pillar to post, including the local police station, saying that most probably Rs 1,500 had been erroneously shown as Rs 1,50,000 in the bill. But his plea fell on deaf ears, and he was finally driven to suicide.
In protest, local people placed Ramji’s body in front of the local Electricity department office, refusing to go ahead with last rites until a case is filed against the SDO and junior engineer.
Atrauli SDM Pankaj Kumar and police officials said on Sunday that action will be taken against those found guilty.
