Farmer’s suicide: Delhi police say AAP workers obstructed them, refuse judicial probe

Moreoever, when police tried to rush him to hospital, the AAP workers prevented them from doing so timely claiming the farmer was an AAP worker and AAP workers would take him to hospital in a vehicles arranged by them. By the time the farmer was taken to hospital, doctors declared him brought dead, the FIR says.

The police have submitted a detailed report of the case to Home Minister Rajnath Singh while a Crime Branch team which is probing the case has been sent to the village of the deceased in Rajasthan.

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“We have submitted a report to the Home Ministry about yesterday’s unfortunate incident,” Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi told reporters after he along with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung met Singh on Thursday morning.

“We have filed an FIR in this connection under section 306 (Abetment of suicide), 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 34 (common intention) of IPC and whatever will be necessary will be done to investigate the case,” he added.

Copy of the FIR filed by Delhi Police

Copy of the FIR

Copy of the FIR

Inspector S S Yadav, enlisted at Tilak Marg police station, was on duty at the AAP rally in Jantar Mantar on Wednesday when the incident unfolded before him. This is what he saw, reads the FIR-

Translated version of the FIR

It was around 12:50 pm when I was standing near the Kutty’s Shop Cut and looking on as the AAP leadership was holding forth on the land acquisition issue. Suddenly, I noticed that several persons in the crowd were looking away from the stage. I followed their gaze and saw that a farmer, namely Gajencder Singh, was perched on a branch of a tree waving a broom in his hand. I immediately radioed the police control room on my Wireless Set and I also urged the AAP workers to refrain from egging the farmer on and instead helping him down to safety. But neither the workers nor the leaders on stage assisted me in this. My message to the control room alerted other police officers, Station house offices of Tilak Marg and Bara Khamba Road Police Stations, and other staff who reached the spot.

Police requested the AAP workers to make way for emergency vehicle to drive through, but the workers retorted that Police were against the AAP and they were keeping the AAP from staging their protest. Meanwhile, the farmer had tied his gamchha around his neck and the other end to the branch. Police had by then called for the Fire services to arrange for a ladder. Also, seeing the farmer tying the gamchha, the workers alerted the AAP leadership seated at the stage about the incident and the other workers and leaders applauded in response. Egged on by the crowd, Gajendra hanged himself, suspended by gamchha and parts of his body stuck at odd positions in the branches of the tree. A few people present there began climbing the tree who were told that the fire brigade was about to come.

They could have done this more safely. But these went ahead nevertheless and untangled Gajendra’s body from the branches of the tree leaving it to fall freely to the ground. Police immediately attempted to rush the farmer to RML hospital in a pcr van. But the AAP workers vehemently objected and did not allow police to carry out their duties. Instead the workers insisted that Gajendra was a fellow AAP worker and they would take his body to hospital in a vehicle arranged by the party itself. However, after a lot of struggle and argument, we managed to get Gajendra’s body placed in a pcr van and driven to RML where doctors declared him brought dead.

Members of the SIT formed under the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police also left for Dausa village of Rajasthan where Gajendra lived beginning the probe into Gajendra’s death. Moreover, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Vijay Singh nullifying the chances of a magisterial probe into the matter, wrote in response to a query by the district magistrate, New Delhi district, informing him that he had “no jurisdiction regarding this matter”, increasing the likelihood of a run in with the magistrate.

Investigators are also checking his mobile phone call records to identify the people with whom he was in touch with after coming to Delhi. They also visited the site of the incident and will be speaking to the people who tried to save him.