New Delhi: A human skeleton was found in the settlement of a scrap dealer by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers during a cleanliness drive in the national capital Saturday.
While the BJP called the incident a matter of investigation and informed the police, scrap dealer Mohammed Abrar maintained that the skeleton was a lab item which they brought from a school, along with other discarded items.
A BJP leader said that workers of the party’s Delhi unit were carrying out a cleanliness drive in the national capital, under the ‘Seva Sankalp Abhiyan’.
Alleging that illegal constructions have been put up in the area, he said: “While our workers were cleaning the area, one of them picked up a box near the hut of one Shakeel Mohammad (brother of Mohammed Abrar) to collect garbage in it. As soon as he picked up the box, its broken cover fell off, and inside was a human skeleton. Naturally, people got scared.”
“I immediately called the police, who confirmed that it is indeed a human skeleton…the person is claiming to have brought it from somewhere, but, according to what the police have also said, it is illegal to possess a skeleton even if he got it from somewhere else…it is a serious issue regarding whether someone was killed, was kidnapped or anything else.”
The BJP leader reiterated the party’s claim that Bangladeshis illegally infiltrate from across the border and indulge in anti-national activities.
“Here too, government land has been illegally encroached,” he claimed while urging police to conduct a drive in the area to check for any criminal activities.
However, Mohammad Abrar defended himself, saying his nephew brought the human skeleton from a nearby school in July.
“The scrap that was brought from school consisted of discarded papers, books, several almirahs and boxes. We brought all of these from a school. If they deny it now, we can’t do anything,” he told IANS.
He further said that CCTV cameras installed at the school can be checked to see whether the scrap was sold to them.
“We had seen the skeleton in the box but left it like that, thinking it was used in school labs…The earlier principal of the school used to give us only papers and books in scrap, but the new principal asked us to take away all the non-essential things of the lab,” he added.
Accepting that he should have informed the authorities, the scrap dealer claimed that people in the area knew the skeleton was brought along with the other scrap from the school.
“We had kept it out in the open; it’s not like we had hidden it or something,” Abrar added.
Responding to Abrar’s claims, the BJP leader said: “The nearest school here has classes up to standard eight. We have spoken with the principal there, who denied the claims, saying the school doesn’t possess any lab and nothing of such kind has been given to anyone…it is a matter of investigation for the police.”
“However, the biggest question is why did they bring it (skeleton) here? If the cleanliness drive had not happened, this would not have been revealed,” he asserted.
