The file photo of the farmer.
On Saturday evening in Hyderabad, as the Telangana cabinet discussed farmer suicides, less than 10 km away, a 58-year-old man climbed a wall, hanged himself from a tree with his towel.
By the time the government announced that the compensation for farmer suicides had been raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh, Mallesh was long dead.
Mallesh had moved to Hyderabad less than a week ago from his home in the neighbouring Medak district, the constituency of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao. His crops had failed because of drought and he was buried in debt, says his family.
Mallesh did find a job as a security guard at an apartment complex in Hyderabad, but with a salary of Rs 6,500, he could not hope to repay his farm debts for a long time.
He had reportedly been extremely depressed over the past few days.
The police found his mobile phone on his body and contacted his family.
Mallesh's brother-in-law Srinivas told the police that he was a farmer and owned one and a half acres of land in Medak, but his crop had been destroyed.
He owed over Rs 1.5 lakh in agricultural loans, said Srinivas.
Mallesh, who belongs to the fishermen's community, also had a share in a fishing tank but that did not come to anything either.
The district administration is investigating whether Mallesh took his own life because of farm debts.
Mallesh and his wife stayed alone in Medak; their two daughters and a son are all married and live separately. The police say that could be among the reasons he was depressed.
According to the government, 430 farmer suicides have been reported in the last one year, and of these, 141 were eligible for compensation according to the government's criteria.
Opposition parties allege that at least 1,200 farmers have killed themselves. Just yesterday, 13 farmers killed themselves in districts across the state.