Gupta

MEMORANDUM **

Sanjay Gupta, a native and citizen of India, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) affirmance without opinion of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his applications for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a). See Kalaw v. INS, 133 F.3d 1147, 1150 (9th Cir.1997). We grant the petition for review and remand.

The IJ made an adverse credibility finding against Gupta. While “we accord substantial deference to an IJ’s credibility findingU ... [w]hen the IJ provides specific reasons for the questioning of a witness’s credibility, this court may evaluate those reasons to determine whether they are valid grounds upon which to base a finding that the applicant is not credible.” Mendoza Manimbao v. Ashcroft, 329 F.3d 655, 658 (9th Cir.2003) (quotation marks and citation omitted). We conclude that none of the grounds cited by the IJ to support his adverse credibility finding is valid.

First, nothing in the record supports the IJ’s finding of an inconsistency between Gupta’s testimony concerning his All India Sikh Student Federation (“AISSF”) membership to support Sikh rights and his Hindu faith.…