New Delhi, April 24: Contrition and copious tears on camera have replaced callousness.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal today apologised for continuing with an AAP rally on Wednesday even after a farmer died at the Jantar Mantar venue.

Kejriwal's party colleague Ashutosh went a step ahead and wailed inconsolably on screen, prompting the bereaved daughter of the farmer to console him.

Kejriwal told Asian News International in an interview: "I had to speak for an hour but I spoke for 10 to 15 minutes. Probably I should not have spoken. If anyone's sentiments have been hurt, I apologise."

The AAP leader added: "It is my fault. I feel the rally should have been called off. But please focus on the real issue of the farmers and desist from politicking. Whoever is guilty, hang him, punish him. But the debate should be on why the farmers are committing suicide."

Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan, had died at the rally after positioning himself on a neem tree and putting around his neck a noose fashioned from a towel. It is not clear whether he deliberately hanged himself or he tripped and got asphyxiated. The AAP rally, however, went on.

Ashutosh, the Delhi AAP convener who had apologised after triggering outrage by saying that "the chief minister must climb the tree and bring people down", broke down during a television debate. He was talking to Gajendra's 16-year old daughter, Megha.

"The BJP is saying it's a conspiracy. The Congress says it's a conspiracy. Maybe it's our fault. We are inhuman. I request Modi-ji, Sambit Patra (a BJP spokesperson) not to politicise this," Ashutosh said, wailing inconsolably.

Megha, who was being interviewed over the phone, had to console him, saying: "Don't blame yourself. My father has passed away. I request parties not to blame each other."

She added: "I want justice. We want a proper probe into how my father died and who instigated him. There were so many people, so many making videos. Couldn't they have saved him?"

Delhi police, who do not report to the state government but to the Union home ministry, had refused to cooperate with a magisterial probe ordered by the AAP government.

Kejriwal today toned down his rhetoric against the police. "If they (the police) had the slightest inkling, I am sure 80 to 90 per cent of them would have felt pity. They would have saved him. I genuinely feel that they did not expect him to do something."

At the rally on Wednesday, Kejriwal had said: "You (the police) may not report to my government, but don't you report to God? Isn't there any humanity in you? Do you need orders to save a man?"

The AAP had blamed the police for inaction while the law enforcers have accused AAP volunteers of preventing an emergency response vehicle from reaching the spot.

New Delhi's district magistrate Sanjay Kumar has published advertisements in newspapers asking people to come forward with any evidence they have of the incident.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh visited Gajendra's village Nangal Jhamarwara in Rajasthan's Dausa district on Friday. Singh presented a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to Gajendra's widow Hemlata.

"I will ask the chief minister to consider declaring him a Kisan Shaheed (farmer martyr)," the AAP leader told reporters.