Amit Shah, NIA chief must resign: Cong on bail to Chopan

The Congress on Friday attacked the government over the bail granted to Jaish-e-Mohammed terror conspiracy case accused Yusuf Chopan due to "inadequate evidence" and demanded Home Minister Amit Shah and the NIA chief's resignation over the matter.

Referring to the National Investigation Agency's assertion on Thursday that Chopan was never arrested in the Pulwama attack case, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi asked why the agency's statement was not signed by an official and was without its header or watermark.

In the statement, the NIA had said the bail was granted to Chopan, who had been arrested by the agency in a terror conspiracy case, and not the February 2019 attack case. The NIA spokesperson said Chopan was arrested in the case pertaining to a criminal conspiracy hatched by senior commanders of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group to carry out terror attacks in different parts of India, including Delhi-NCR.

The NIA official said the agency had not filed charge sheet against Chopan in the JeM conspiracy case as enough evidence could not be gathered against him, resulting in his bail by a special court in Delhi. At a press conference, Singhvi said the government should make it clear whether it issued a statement in connection with Chopan not being arrested in connection with the Pulwama terror attack case or not, and if it did then it should explain why a "JeM terrorist" was let off for lack of evidence.

"We demand the resignation of the Home Minister and the NIA chief (Y C Modi)," he said as he listed the questions for the government to reply to.

"Is a person named Yousuf Chopan a terrorist of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)? Well the answer is 'yes'. Is JeM not responsible for the Parliament attack, Pulwama and many similar terrorist attacks?" he asked.

"It (the statement) states 'chargesheet couldn't be filed due to lack of evidence against Chopan' - how is this possible? Is this not a clean chit to JeM?" Singhvi asked. Isn't this the worst example of treason, he further asked, asserting that either the government was incompetent or it was guilty of lying. He also asked the government about how it will deal with JeM if Chopan is being given a clean chit.