A farmer today committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s presence at the Aam Aadmi Party’s rally here against the land bill.
The man, identified as Gajendra Singh, climbed the tree as top AAP leaders were present at the Jantar Mantar, a stone’s throw from Parliament, and hanged himself with a ‘gamcha’ (towel). As some people climbed up to save him, the branch gave away and he fell.
He was rushed to nearby RML hospital in a police jeep and the doctors there said that he was “brought dead”.
A purported suicide note was recovered from the spot in which he mentioned that he is a farmer and his crops have been destroyed. He has also wrote his family’s contact number.
The incident occurred at around 2 pm in the presence of Kejriwal prompting senior AAP leaders to allege that it was an attempt to “sabotage” the rally and slammed the police for being “mute spectators”.
Kejriwal said, “We kept asking the police to bring him down. Police may not be in our control but at least there should be a semblance of humanity among them. I am rushing to the hospital with Manish Sisodia”.
After his speech, the chief minister reached the hospital but Singh was already declared dead.
Initially Kumar Vishwas requested the man to climb down.
He later alleged that it was a “pre-planned” attempt to sabotage the demonstration.
However, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the man was a farmer and termed the incident “unfortunate“.
“Just now an unfortunate incident occurred. We don’t know why the ‘kisan bhai’ tried to hang himself but I and Arvind (Kejriwal) will go to see him at the hospital,” Sisodia said.
The Congress said the incident was shocking and it was time for all those in position of power to introspect on the reasons behind it.
The BJP lashed out at AAP over the incident, accusing it of politicising every issue.