The AAP on Sunday accused the BJP of “kidnapping” its Bawana Councillor Ram Chander, with the BJP vehemently denying the allegation even as the “abducted” member returned to his residence.

These kidnapping charges came just some days before the crucial zonal ward committee elections of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), slated to be held on Wednesday. Upon his return, Chander, councillor from Ward no. 28, claimed that he was threatened on the pretext of being framed in ED-CBI cases by the opposition outfit.

He along with four other AAP Councillors joined the BJP last Sunday albeit returning to AAP a few days later after he claimed seeing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in his dream.

Later, in a video message, he said that he was taken by some people to BJP headquarters.

“There they threatened me saying I would be framed by ED and CBI. My son Akash called the police helpline while our senior party leaders called the police commissioner. When they (BJP) got to know about it, they sent me back home,” Chander said in the video message.

“I want to tell BJP, I am not scared of ED and CBI. I have done nothing wrong. I am a soldier of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal,” he said in the video shared by AAP. The party demanded answers from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, and the Police Commissioner.

On Sunday, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh shared a video of Ram Chander’s son Akash on X alleging that his father had been kidnapped. In the post, Akash said, “My father received a call from an ex-councillor of BJP saying, ‘We are standing downstairs near your house to meet you’. My father went downstairs to his office. What we have learnt is that there were four to five people, who threatened my father that he would be implicated by ED-CBI and they have taken him. We are searching for him.”

“AAP councilor Ram Chander’s son, Akash, called on 100 and informed the Delhi Police about the entire incident and many senior leaders of AAP talked to the Police Commissioner over the phone and demanded to release councilor Ram Chander from the clutches of the BJP as soon as possible. After heavy pressure from all sides, the BJP people left Ram Chander at his home through someone,” AAP said in a statement.

Reacting to Singh’s post, senior party leader Manish Sisodia reiterated the charges levelled by Akash. AAP MLA and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak accused the BJP of “making a mockery of law and order” in Delhi.

“BJP, in collusion with Delhi Police, got AAP councilor Ramchandra kidnapped. The former BJP councilor went to Ramchandra’s house to meet him and said that he wanted to meet him. When Ramchandra went to meet him, the BJP leader and five to six people accompanying him intimidated him, forced him into a car and kidnapped him,” he said.

Hitting back, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva dismissed the allegation and called it ‘baseless and false’. “AAP leaders are merely making unsuccessful attempts to create confusion among the public,” he said, demanding an investigation by the Delhi Police in the matter.

In the lead-up to the zonal ward committee elections, both AAP and BJP have claimed that councillors from the other side are ready to switch allegiance and defect from one party to another.