Ludhiana, June 18 (IANS): In less than a fortnight, another debt-ridden farmer has committed suicide by consuming poison in Punjab, his family said on Thursday.

Farmer Harmeet Singh of Mansuran village near here took the extreme step on Wednesday evening after he failed to return the loan taken from an 'arhtiya' or private financier, the family said.

The incident came to light on Thursday when the family reported it to police.

"My father was under depression after the 'arhtiya' confiscated the land documents and was planning to sell it further," the farmer's son Ishpreet told reporters.

He said his father had taken loan for farming but the 'arhtiya' charged a high rate of interest.

Ishpreet said the crop was ruined due to untimely rains.

Earlier, Surjit Singh, a 60-year-old debt-ridden farmer, who had met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on April 28 after his crops were destroyed by unseasonal rains, committed suicide on June 10 by consuming poison.

Gandhi on Thursday met Surjit Singh's family.

Clad in a white kurta and blue jeans, Gandhi spent time with the family and hugged the widow in Dadumajra village near Chunni Kalan in Fatehgarh Sahib district.

"Rahul ji came here specially to attend the 'bhog' of my father. He promised to raise the plight of farmers in the country," his son Kulwinder Singh told reporters.

Gandhi had on April 28 taken his fight for the farmers and boarded a train from Delhi to Ambala in Haryana to learn about their condition. He also visited Punjab to look at the situation of the farmers.