In its report to the Union Home Ministry on the suicide of Gajendra Singh, the Delhi Police, Wednesday, blamed the Aam Aadmi Party and the crowd present at its Jantar Mantar rally for the farmer’s death.
As per the Delhi Police report, AAP leaders were making provocative speeches, and the crowd present at the rally venue instigated and provoked Gajendra to commit suicide. The report also alleged that AAP did not heed to the police’s request to change the rally’s venue to Ram Lila Maidan.
The Delhi Police also alleged that the SDM of the New Delhi district, who was mandated by the Kejriwal government to conduct a probe, had asked the police not to conduct a post-mortem on the body of Gajendra.
In its report, Delhi Police alleged that the SDM of Chanakyapuri wanted to delay autopsy of the farmer’s body but as he could not produce any official order for delaying the procedure, police went ahead with it.
The charges, however, were strongly refuted by District Magistrate (New Delhi) Sanjay Kumar who is carrying out a magisterial inquiry into the case.
“Why would we want to delay the post-mortem? In fact when we reached the hospital, police refused to recognise our authority. They didn’t even reveal the name of the farmer to us. I don’t know why they are saying this,” said Kumar.
The Delhi Police is also trying to piece together the last 24 hours of farmer Gajendra Singh’s life by analysing his mobile phone data and questioning people to find out where he had visited and whom he had spoken to before his alleged suicide at Jantar Mantar.
One of the relatives of the deceased farmer, whose mobile phone number was found on Singh’s call log, has told police that he was asked by him to switch on his TV as “something big was going to happen”.
“The relative, who lives in Singh’s native village in Dausa of Rajasthan, received a call from him at around 1 pm (on April 22). Singh had told him, ‘TV kholo, dekho kuch bada hone wala hai’ (switch on your TV, something big is going to happen),” said a senior police official associated with the probe.
Police said they are trying to ascertain whether there was a hint in his words as to the events that were soon to unfold during an AAP rally in Delhi. Some others who came into contact with Singh before he climbed a tree and tied a towel round his neck in the moments preceding the tragedy are also being questioned to determine whether he had showed any suicidal tendency.
Two eyewitnesses who had seen him climb the tree, and three AAP workers who had scrambled up to bring Singh down, are also being questioned, added police.
Police are also analysing Singh’s movements after he left his Dausa home to reach Jantar Mantar. “All this will help us find out whether he had reached there to commit suicide or if it was an accidental death,” they added.
Singh, a 41-year-old farmer from Rajasthan, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree during an AAP rally against the land ordinance. In a note scribbled by him, Singh said he was thrown out of his home by his father after suffering crop loss.
