Police To Take Into Custody Davinder Singh

The Jammu and Kashmir Police will soon take into custody suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police Davinder Singh and Hizbul Mujahideen militant Naveed Babu for their custodial interrogation in a case in which PDP youth wing president Waheed-ur-Rehman Para has been arrested, officials said on Thursday.

According to documents submitted in a court, the Central Investigation Kashmir (CIK), a branch of CID mandated to probe cases under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has informed the judge that it would be soon taking over their custody to tie up loose ends in the case.

The CIK filed the case under various sections of the UAPA last year based on "reliable and confidential sources" who said some political functionaries were misusing

their power and aiding and abetting militant activities in Kashmir Valley. The police were replying to a petition in the special court moved by Para seeking bail, which was subsequently rejected on February 23. “The investigations conducted reveal that the accused had been in touch with ANEs (Anti-National Elements) and OGWs (Over Ground Workers), which includes some accused persons who are presently lodged in jail in NIA case. “These accused are also to be questioned in the instant case after seeking permission from NIA court Jammu,” the counsel for the police had said in the court. The National Investigation Agency had arrested and later charge-sheeted Singh, Syed Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed Babu as well as the group's alleged overground worker Irfan Shafi Mir and its member Rafi Ahmad Rather. The other two named are Tanveer Ahmad Wani, a trader, and Naveed Babu's brother Syed Irfan Ahmad. Singh along with Mir were arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in January last year when they were ferrying Naveed Babu and Rather out of Kashmir to escape the harsh winter. Later, the case was taken over by the NIA and the agency filed charge sheet in July last year. The CIK had registered the case in which it alleged that some “unscrupulous politicians, as part of a criminal conspiracy, had established clandestine connections and relations with different Pakistan-supported militant and secessionist organisations operating in Jammu and Kashmir for a number of reasons”. The conspiracy was hatched for furthering their political clout among local populace, countering the influence of rival political parties and their members, protecting their own financial and business interests and with medium term motives of winning the trust of “the Pakistani establishment, dealing with subversion in Kashmir, including those in the United Jihad Council”. These politicians have supported the militants and secessionists, directly and sometimes through middlemen, by way of paying money, organising select physical attacks through militant elements. These politicians also facilitated movements of militants and transporting their arms and ammunition. In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, these “unprincipled political parties functionaries” assisted and aided the militants and secessionists in intensifying the war against the Union of India with the main objective of ultimately making Jammu and Kashmir cede from the Union,” it alleged.