New Delhi : The second act of Delhi’s theatre of absurd got played out in Parliament and outside on Thursday. Even as the debate on the suicide of farmer Gajendera Singh in Parliament was punctuated with observations from all sides that the issue should not be politicised, in substance the entire parliamentary exercise ended up in doing just.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh promised a police probe, and outside Parliament the AAP government ordered a magisterial enquiry. But the Delhi police refused to join this enquiry citing jurisdictional issues.
Inside the house, Rajnath Singh’s statements virtually blamed the AAP leadership for the death, and outside it the BJP protested describing the incident as a “motivated murder.”
The Delhi Police also seemed to subscribe to the BJP theory: It lodged an FIR accusing the AAP and its leaders of having instigated Singh into committing suicide and obstructing efforts to rescue him. (Incidentally, on Wednesday, the AAP had accused the police of not doing anything to rescue the 41-year-old farmer during its rally at Jantar Mantar).
The FIR has been registered under Section 306 (Abetment of suicide), 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.
The two-page FIR, filed on the complaint of S S Yadav, an inspector who was on duty at the rally venue, states: “Around 12:50 PM, when AAP leaders were delivering speeches, I saw some people looking upward at a tree and clapping where a man was waving a broom. I informed the control room on wireless and asked AAP workers and others not to instigate him and help us bring him down. But neither the AAP leaders on stage nor the workers on the ground cooperated.’’
The officer further said that he called up senior officials and again requested AAP workers to help rescue Singh and also to make way for the rescue vehicle. But they continued to assert that the police was against AAP.
Reconstructing the scene, the FIR adds, “Some people were trying to climb the tree but we told them that the Fire Brigade has been called and the man will be rescued using their ladder. But they did not pay heed to our requests and climbed the tree. During their effort, the man fell flat on the ground.”
The police further claimed that when they tried to take Gajendra Singh to RML hospital in a police vehicle, AAP workers blocked their way saying that he was a party worker and will be taken to hospital in their vehicle.
Earlier, in his statement in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had seconded this version of the police suggesting that it took prompt steps to tackle the situation by calling the control room and ordering help from the fire brigade. The AAP, however, accused the minister of “lying”. “The Home Minister is lying and giving misleading statements. It is the Union government’s ploy to target AAP using the Delhi Police,” party spokesperson Sanjay Singh said.
Meanwhile, the police have written to the District Magistrate, who has been asked to conduct a magisterial inquiry by the Delhi Government, saying that it has no jurisdiction in the matter.
Following claims from the family of Singh that the purported suicide note recovered from him was not in his hand writing, the police have sent the paper for forensic examination. Earlier in the day, the police submitted a detailed report to Rajnath Singh in connection with the suicide.
The investigation in the case has been handed over to the Crime Branch whose team has been sent to Nangal Jhamarwada village in Dausa, Rajasthan, to do a background check on Singh and gather information about the circumstances which brought him to Delhi.
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 had tried to save him.
“We are also awaiting the post-mortem report to determine whether he died of hanging or because of the 20-25 feet fall. We would also check the videos of the incident to piece together the sequence of events,” said a senior police official associated with the probe. – Input PTI
