BJP points finger at AAP over Delhi school bomb threats

New Delhi:

The BJP on Tuesday asked AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to clarify whether his party has any links with those allegedly involved in sending bomb threats to over 400 schools in Delhi recently.

This came after Delhi Police alleged that a Class 12 student had sent fake bomb threats to over 400 city schools and his parents were associated with an NGO supporting a political party. However, the police did not reveal the name of the political party.

The police official also said that during the investigation, it was found that the NGO had expressed support for Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

In response, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the BJP of “making up stories” ahead of the Assembly elections and asserted that “the police have not received any evidence so far.”

Terming the police findings “very sensitive and serious”, BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said that during the investigation it was also found that the parents of the student were associated with some NGOs that have been involved in such activities in the past considered hostile to security national.

“This news raises serious suspicions as we all know that AAP has deep links with such unwanted NGOs and others involved in anti-national activities,” he said at a press conference at the BJP headquarters.

Stressing that it was not something plucked out of thin air, Mr. Trivedi said, “Chief Minister Atishi Marlena’s parents have supported Afzal Guru’s mercy petition. “The AAP (government) has kept a case file in connection with raising the ‘tukde-tukde’ slogan (on the JNU campus) pending (for sanction of impeachment of the accused) for months,” he alleged.

The BJP leader said there appears to be a “direct link” between NGOs and the AAP leadership in the case related to bomb threats sent to schools in Delhi.

“Kejriwal is talking nonsense and giving false testimony. “I want to ask clearly whether AAP will explain its connection with the terrifying and dangerous facts being revealed, because there is a direct ideological similarity with you in connection with the disclosure of the mechanism of this case,” he said.

BJP’s Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva also took up the matter with AAP and stated that given the direction of investigation in the case, “links between the said NGO, AAP and its leaders will become visible somewhere.”

“It is not a coincidence… These emails were sent to 400 schools as part of a well-thought-out conspiracy to create an atmosphere of fear in Delhi as they had to win the elections,” he alleged.

“Arvind Kejriwal is an enemy not only of Delhi but also of the country… May Delhi be free from this ‘aapda’ (disaster) as they (AAP) have destroyed Delhi,” he added.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh ridiculed Trivedi over his allegations, calling him the “newly appointed Delhi Police Commissioner”.

“He knows things that even the police are not aware of,” the AAP leader said at a press conference.

Singh also asked why the BJP was raising the issue eight months after the first report of a bomb threat was received at a school in the city in May last year.

“The police have not received any evidence so far while the BJP has raised the issue for political gain and Trivedi is making up baseless stories when the Delhi Assembly elections are less than 15 days away,” the AAP leader said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)