Sangli, Maharashtra: A farmer was killed when police opened fire to control a crowd of farmland activists in Vasgade village in Sangli district yesterday afternoon, police said.
In a related incident, Pundalik Kokate, a farmer, was killed when a truck ran over him during an agitation in Kolhapur. The ongoing six-day old farmers’ agitation turned violent yesterday when police arrested Raju Shetti, MP and chief of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, who served as the leader of the farmers, and his close associate, Sada Khot.
The two men were arrested from Indapur, Pune district, just before they were set to launch a state-wide agitation to block all major roads and highways to press for their demands. Shetti has been leading the farmers agitation demanding minimum support price of `3,000 for sugarcane growers, rattling the sugar lobby of western Maharashtra, controlled mostly by Nationalist Congress Party and Congress politicians.
Opposing the arrests, angry mobs of agitating farmers pelted stones and attacked a police van, while law-enforcers burst teargas shells and later opened fire in the air to control the mobs in Sangli district. However, one of the agitators here, identified as Chandrakant Nalawade, sustained a bullet injury and later succumbed, a Sangli district police official said.IANS
