"My brother had a talk with Manish Sisodia before attending AAP rally," says Vijendra Singh.
Gajendra Singh -- the farmer who hanged himself at the Aam Aadmi Party rally in Delhi -- had decided to attend the rally after a conversation with Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, his brother Vijendra Singh told NDTV today.
"I asked him why he was going to the rally since there was a wedding in the family that day. He said he had a talk with Mr Sisodia. 'I will place before him whatever problems I'm facing,' my brother said," Vijendra Singh said.
He however, had no details about when the conversation had taken place.
AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha, however, told NDTV that no one from the party had contacted the farmer. The police are examining the call records of Gajendra Singh.
Vijendra Singh also said his brother had met Mr Sisodia once earlier as well, just after AAP's sweeping victory in the Delhi assembly elections.
Like the other members of his family, he found it hard to believe that his brother could have committed suicide. The suicide note thrown down by Gajendra Singh before he jumped to his death, said nothing of suicide, he pointed out.
"It only listed the problems he was facing. I feel my brother just wanted to be heard. He wanted to reach the dais and place his problems before the assembled leaders... Mr Sisodia, Kumar Vishwas and others... but no one paid him any attention," he said.
The note, signed Gajender Singh, had said, "Friends, I am a farmer's son. I'm thrown out by my father because my crop is destroyed. I have three children. Please tell me, how do I go back to my home?" It concluded with a nationalistic slogan popularized during the 1965 India- Pakistan war: "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (Hail the soldier, hail the farmer)."
The note was sent for forensic examination after Gajendra Singh's sister had alleged that it was not her brother's handwriting. Vijendra Singh, who confirmed the handwriting, however, said it was incredible that anyone would go to a crowded rally at the national capital to commit suicide.
"My brother was hard working man. He cared about the less fortunate and wished to do something for them," he said.