The district administration claims Rindhe's inability to "maintain his social prestige" led the 48-year-old farmer to the grave, while his family and local leaders insist he was crushed under the weight of a growing debt burden.

The locals attribute Rindhe's suicide to the crop failure early this year, which caused many farmers, mainly from Vidarbha, to commit suicide. But if the district administration has its way, Rindhe's family could be denied the State Government compensation.

Rindhe owned 5.54 hectares of land (about 13.5 acres) at Bolthan village in Nandgaon taluka of Nashik district, where he grew sugarcane, wheat, and bajra. The yield had dwindled over the years while his borrowings kept mounting.

Rindhe had accumulated a debt of Rs 91,000 since 1978, but was forced to continue borrowing from cooperative credit societies and banks during the last 20years. He owed Rs 1.79 lakh to the local cooperative - the Bolthan Vividh Karyakari Seva Sahakari Society and Rs 46,000 to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

He had also borrowed Rs 1.5 lakh for his daughter's wedding last year from a private money lender. To repay the loan, Rindhe sold 10 acres of the original 23 acres he had inherited.

But the crop failure during the last kharif season drove the final nail into his coffin. When Rindhe was unable to secure a loan to purchase a cupboard as a wedding gift for a relative, he committed suicide.

However, Nandgaon tehsildar, Muktaram Shinde, claims Rindhe was far from being in penury. His agricultural income last year amounted to Rs 2.91 lakh while he had earned Rs 1.04 lakh this year alone, he says.

Shinde's report to District Collector Amitabh Joshi says Rindhe had spent over Rs 2 lakh on his daughter's wedding, and was frustrated as he could not maintain his social status. The report claims his outstanding loans amounted to Rs 88,688 only,including electricity bills of Rs 20,000.

Former legislator Kanhaiyyalal Nahar has now advised Rindhe's widow Indirabai to demand compensation even though the Nandgaon police have registered a case of accidental death. Rindhe was a Congress worker and the party's Nandgaon unit has threatened to agitate if the government fails to compensate the farmer's kin by June 15.

Nahar and Shivajirao Kavde, vice-president of the district unit of the Youth Congress, have also accused the administration of down-playing the suicide.

Meanwhile, in Aurangabad Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray blamed district cooperative banks controlled by the Congress for forcing the farmers to repay loans with interest, resulting in suicides by 46 farmers in the State.

Addressing an election campaign meeting at Kannad on Saturday night for Shiv Sena candidate Subhash Patil, he denied the allegation that the Sena-BJP Government's policies were responsible for the suicide by farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.

"Congressleaders added the names of those farmers who committed suicide due to cancer and other incurable diseases and even at one place due to frustration in love affair, only with a view to target the alliance Government," Thackeray said.

He said the Government would give Rs one lakh to the families of the farmers who had committed suicide as they were unable to pay back bank loans following crop failure. Thackeray said he would now press for construction of Ram Mandir instead of a national memorial at Ayodhya.

"I had earlier suggested a national memorial to bridge the widening gap between Hindus and minorities. However, instead of reciprocating our feelings, they supported Samajwadi Party," he said.