Congress attacks govt over bail to Pulwama ‘accused’

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday hit out at the Centre over bail to Pulwama accused Yusuf Chopan, saying the National Investigation Agency failed to file a charge sheet in the case in which 40 CRPF troops were killed in a suicide attack on Feb 14 last year.

Demanding resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah and the NIA chief, the Congress said: “Either the government is incompetent or you are guilty of lying”.

“We demand the resignation of the Home Minister and the NIA chief. There have been demands for the resignation of the Home Minister for the Delhi riots, but now an important case has come up, that of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist,” said senior spokesperson for Congress Abhishek Singhvi.

The NIA has rejected claims that Yusuf Chopan was arrested in the Pulwama case. In a statement on Thursday, the investigating agency said that Chopan was “never arrested” in the Pulwama attack case. “He, along with six others, was arrested in a Jaish-e-Mohammed conspiracy case registered in August last year,” said the NIA.

Singhvi’s attack on the government came for the third time in the past 24 hours. First it was raised by party treasurer Ahmed Patel and then by Pawan Khera, another party spokesperson, on Thursday.

The Congress has asked a series of direct questions. “Is the person named Yousuf Chopan a terrorist of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)? Well the answer is ‘yes’. Is the JeM responsible for the Parliament, Pulwama and many similar terrorist attacks?” Singhvi asked.

“Why was a charge sheet not filed against Chopan, the accused in Pulwama attack? Do you consider Pulwama and Parliament attacks anti-national crimes? Did the Central government submit any documents? If yes, why is there no signature on the papers submitted by the government?” Singhvi questioned.

He said the papers mentioned that the charge sheet couldn’t be filed due to lack of evidence against Chopan. “How is this possible? Is this not a clean chit to JeM? What kind of madness is this?” Singhvi said.

The Congress alleged that the Prime Minister has forgotten the Pulwama martyrs. “Isn’t this the worst example of treason?” Singhvi asked.

IANS