The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday accused the Opposition of deceiving and exploiting the sentiments of the mother of Rohith Vemula, a scholar whose suicide in 2016 had sparked a major political row, for petty political gains.

During a press conference, Union Minister Piyush Goyal cited reports that Vemula’s mother Radhika Vemula had accused Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a Kerala-based party, of not giving her the promised Rs 20 lakh to attend political rallies where “false allegations against the BJP were levelled”.

“How long opposition parties will continue with such abhorrent tactics for petty political gains. The condition of the family (Vemula) was not good and she was promised money for political reasons so that she could share stage with opposition leaders and level allegations,” said the interim Finance Minister.

The BJP also sought an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Goyal said Rahul Gandhi had also shared staged with her and claimed that it should be found out what allurements were offered to her.

“The Congress president should apologise,” he said, claiming that opposition parties have been unmasked for their politics based on lies.

“The BJP condemns this low level of politics and political misuse of such an incident,” Goyal said referring to the suicide. “People will not forget these parties,” he said.

Lashing out at the IUML leaders, the BJP leader said: “According to his mother, the IUML gave them two cheques of Rs 2.5 lakh, out of which one bounced.”

However, as per media reports, Radhika Vemula has denied being used for political gains by IUML. She agreed that IUML had promised her money, but she diagreed with reports suggesting that she was exploited by the IUML.

Radhika Vemula further said that she spoke against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her volition and would again if she felt like it.

Radhika said that she was provided with two cheques, out which one had bounced. She had informed IUML, whose leaders had provided her the money.

Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at University of Hyderabad, had committed suicide on the campus on 17 January 2016. Opposition parties had blamed Vemula’s alleged harassment by groups affiliated to the BJP and the RSS for his suicide, and had launched protests against the saffron party.