Kisan Dhage

Kisan Dhage (died 15 November 1998) was a teacher in a school run by Vidyarthi Shikshan Mandal of Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat in Sungaon village of Vidarbha's Buldana district in Maharashtra in India .

Dhage committed suicide on November 15, 1998. In the suicide note, he named Shekhawat for driving him to end his life. Devisingh Shekhawat is the husband of Pratibha Patil, the 13th President of India.

Dhage's travails began in August 1997 with he transferred from Sungaon village in Buldana district to an Ashram School in the Amravati district. He was asked to work as hostel warden as there was no vacancy in the teaching cadre. However, his salary was terminated as the education department held the transfer illegal.

Bombay High Court directed the Vidyarthi Shikhan Mandal to release Dhage's pending salary forthwith. The high court had also ordered the education society to reinstate Dhage as a teacher in any of the schools run by it. However, with neither of the high court's October 8, 1998 orders being complied until November 16, 1998, Dhage ended his life instead by swallowing poison.

In his suicide note, titled "Jeevo jiwasya jeewanam" (one life is food for another), written on stamp-paper and addressed to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, he alleged that Shekhawat and four other officials psychologically tormented him and denied him a salary for 15 months by defying an order from the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. He stated that it was impossible for him to feed his family and lead an honourable life in the absence of a salary.

Dhage's widow, Mangala, had approached the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Jalgaon. The JMFC had later directed the police to start criminal proceedings in the case. The case is pending in the high court.

External links

* [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Muck_refuses_to_move_from_Pratibha_path/articleshow/2155230.cms Muck refuses to move from Pratibha path]
* [http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200706281654.htm Suicide abetment: Hearing on Pratibha husband's plea adjourned]