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NIA refutes claims that Pulwama attack accused was let off
NIA further said that during the investigations in the JeM conspiracy case, seven over ground workers of the terror outfit were arrested, out of which six barring Yusuf Chopan were charge sheeted.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) denied reports and allegations that an accused in the Pulwama terror attack case in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed was released on bail due to its laxity.
The agency issued a clarification on Thursday and said Yousuf Chopan was arrested in a terror conspiracy case involving Jaish-e-Mohammed and not in the Pulwama case.
The clarification followed after allegations by the Congress that NIA had not filed charge sheet against Chopan as it failed to gather evidence against him leading to his bail.
The NIA spokesperon said Chopan was arrested in the case pertaining to a criminal conspiracy hatched by senior commanders of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group to carry out terror attacks in different parts of India, including Delhi-NCR.
The agency also said it was close to a breakthrough in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack carried out by a suicide bomber who rammed his vehicle in the CRPF convoy at Lethpora in Srinagar.
“It’s to clarify that Yousuf Chopan was never arrested in Pulwama attack case, however, he along with 6 others was arrested in the NIA case no 08/2019/NIA/DLI (JeM conspiracy case) in which 2 charge sheets were filed against eight accused among who two were killed in encounter with security forces,” NIA statement stated.
NIA further said that during the investigations in the JeM conspiracy case, seven over ground workers of the terror outfit were arrested, out of which six barring Yusuf Chopan were charge sheeted.
The agency cited lack of enough evidence as the reason for not naming Chopan in the charge sheet. It said he was given default bail by the court and rearrested under the public safety act.
“He (Chopan) has been sent back to Kot Bhalwal, jail Jammu under Public Safety Act by the order of DM Pulwama. Needless to say, NIA follows the policy of fairest possible investigation,’’ the statement said.
The NIA statement said “significant leads” have “emerged” in the Pulwama case and a breakthrough in the case was “expected shortly”.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel had earlier today attacked the central government over the issue.
“Shocked to know that the Pulwama accused got bail because NIA so busy that it failed to file a chargesheet! It’s an insult to our martyrs Clearly govt used this tragic attack for political purposes and was never serious about delivering justice,” he tweeted on Thursday.
