JK cop sheltered terrorists at home
Was he also the Parliament attack mastermind?
J&K's decorated deputy superintendent of police Davdinder Singh's collision with terrorists has an audacious ring to it. Arrested in Kashmir while transporting two terrorists in his car driven by a civilian, he had earlier sheltered them in his heavily guarded residence in Badami Bagh cantonment in Srinagar, which is just adjacent to the Army's 15 Corps headquarters.
In another brazen act, Davinder had earlier escorted the two terrorists from Shopian in south Kashmir to his residence on Friday. Onevof the terrorists has been identified as Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naveed Babu, who is also a police deserter.
They hit the road on Saturday morning for Jammu, from where they were planning to go to Delhi. It is being investigated whether the Delhi visit was part of a more sinister game plan for Republic Day.
It is further learnt that earlier, too, Devinder had transported Naveed multiple times to different locations. Naveed is a huge catch with a bounty of Rs 20 lakh on his head. The civilian Irfan Ahmed Mir, sources said, had visited Pakistan five times in the last few years.
Singh's name first appeared in the grey zone after Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru, levelled serious allegation against him during his defence in the trial court.
But back then both the state police and the intelligence agencies had dismissed those allegations as a figment of a terrorist's mind.
Guru alleged in a written affidavit and through statements carried in the local media that Singh had forced him to carry the Parliament attack terrorists to Delhi, hire a flat there and also buy a second hand white ambassador car for the use of the terrorists.
Inspector General of Kashmir Police Vijay Kumar had said at a Press conference in Srinagar on Sunday that Davinder's role in the Parliament attack case, too, would be probed.
The probe into Afzal's allegations, however, may not yield much as all evidence must have been destroyed by Davinder, who then headed J&K Police' Special Task force, which is now known as the Special Operation Group.
Given the high security sensitive nature of Devinder Singh's activities in mind, the National Investigative Agency has decided that after being interrogated by the state police and the intelligence agencies, it will take custody of both Singh and Naveed to find out their links with the terror funding cases being investigated by it.
For how long has Devinder Singh been hunting with the hound and running with the deer? This is going to be the most embarrassing question for his seniors in the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Meanwhile, DSP Davinder Singh, was building a house next to an army base in Srinagar. He had been building a lavish mansion in Indira Nagar, considered to be the most secure zone in Srinagar. His house had been under construction since 2017 and the mansion shared a wall with the headquarters of the 15 Corps.