Farmer Gajendra Singh died a year ago, cops call AAP netas now

NEW DELHI: Ten months after farmer Gajendra Singh's death during an AAP rally at Jantar Mantar, Delhi Police has issued notices to top party functionaries to join investigations.

Among those who have been served notices are Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Ashish Kheitan and Bhagwant Mann, and Neeraj Kumar, a volunteer who had sought permission for the rally on April 22, 2015. The crime branch has asked for a list of volunteers on duty and another list of people on the stage.

Joint commissioner (crime) Ravindra Yadav refused to comment on the move. Sources said the decision was taken in a meeting with police chief B S Bassi two days ago. AAP, whose government is going to complete one year in power in three days, called the move a shameful gimmick. In a tweet, Singh criticised police for waking up after a year.

Police are probing two angles--suicide with possibility of abetment and death due to negligence. The FIR includes sections of abetment and obstructing public servants.According to it, witnesses said Gajendra, who came from Dausa in Rajasthan, was being cheered while he was tying the noose around his neck and no volunteer tried to rescue him. The postmortem report says he was drunk during the incident.

Before reaching Delhi, Ganjendra had tied safas (pagdis) at a wedding in Kurukshetra. Since his arrival in Delhi on the morning of April 22, he had disconnected all calls, the probe reveals. He then called his family around noon and asked them to watch him on television. An hour later, he hung himself.