Police are planning to quiz the officials of a nationalised bank after preliminary investigations revealed that a marginal farmer committed suicide last week because of mounting pressure to repay a loan.

Jagdish Ram, 45, a resident of Pogalbari village in Katihar district, allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling of his house on April 14. His son Mangal Ram lodged a complaint with the Manihari police station accusing the bank officials of pressuring Jagdish, who had taken a loan for cultivating maize on his land two years back.

Katihar superintendent of police (SP) Asgar Ali said preliminary investigation had corroborated Mangal’s accusations.

“As the crop failed, the farmer could not to return the loan to the bank. Recently, the bank employees allegedly threatened Ram to take possession of his land, the main source of livelihood of the family,” Ali said, adding that instruction had been given to the investigating officer to record the statement of the bankers.

He said details of the loan provided to Ram had been sought from the bank to substantiate the allegations. “We have lodged a case of unnatural death on the basis of Mangal’s,” the SP added.

The victim’s relatives said Ram had taken a loan of Rs 50,000 from Kumaripur branch of a nationalised bank. The crops failed for two successive years pushing the family to the brink of starvation.

“My husband was under pressure after the bank officials threatened to take possession of the land. With interest, the debt had soared to Rs 62,000. The agents hired by the bank officials to recovery of debt used to harass him,” Ram’s wife Meena Devi said.

Pankaj Kumar Singh, the manager of the bank, admitted that notices had been served on those cultivators who have failed to repay the loan. “This is a routine affair and we have to launch drive for the recovery of the loan from time to time,” he told The Telegraph on the phone from Katihar.

The manager, however, said he was shocked over Ram’s and denied that the bankers were harassing him. “This is not true,” he said.

The tillers of the area have demanded immediate stop of loan recovery from the marginal farmers, who were not in a condition to repay. “The situation is quite alarming. The maize crops have not yielded as much as expected this year,” said Mohammed Absar, a resident of Morsanda village of the district.

The residents of the district have sought the intervention of the chief minister and the agriculture minister to provide relief to the maize cultivators of the Kosi region. They claimed that Ram was the second farmer to commit suicide in the past few years.

One Jagdish Sharma, a marginal farmer of Katihar, had committed suicide out of depression after he made no profit in maize cultivation in July 2010.