Mumbai: Dalit leader and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar on Saturday stoked a fresh controversy with a comment on the alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rubbishing the police’s claims about a Maoist conspiracy to end  “Modi Raj” with ‘Rajiv Gandhi-type plot,’ Mr Ambedkar said, “Tick 20 (a pesticide) is enough to kill a rat; a gun is not needed.”

On Friday, the Maharashtra police claimed that it had conclusive proof to link five left-wing activists, who were arrested recently, to Maoist-related activities.

The police also referred to an email between Rona Wilson, one of the arrested activists, and a Maoist leader, speaking of ending the “Modi Raj with a Rajiv Gandhi-type assassination incident.”

Commenting on the issue in a television interview, Mr Ambedkar said letters shown by the police in the press conference on Friday were not alluding to killing the Prime Minister. He said the letter only mentioned about Rajiv Gandhi type plot. He further stated that the police had needlessly linked letters with the assassination conspiracy. Taking a jibe at Mr Modi, Mr Ambedkar said, “Tick 20 is enough to kill a rat; a gun is not needed.”

Mr Ambedkar further claimed that the police’s evidence against the arrested activists recently was false and baseless.

The Maharashtra police had recently raided the homes of activists Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgar Parishad event held in Pune on December 31 last year, which had allegedly triggered violence between dalits and upper caste groups at the village of Bhima- Koregaon in the district.

The police has claimed that there is a larger conspiracy by Maoist organisations to overthrow the Indian government using weapons procured from Russia and China. It also claimed to have conclusive proof to link left-wing activists to Maoist activities.

They also produced a letter allegedly written by Wilson to a Maoist leader, Comrade Prakash, about a requirement of `8 crore for the supply of rifles, grenade launchers and rounds of ammunition.