Arrested DSP kept ultras at his house next to cantonment

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 13

Before leaving for Jammu, Hizbul Mujahideen (Hizb) militants stayed overnight at the house of the arrested Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Davinder Singh in the Indra Nagar locality housing Army’s Srinagar-based strategic 15 Corps.

Singh brought Hizb commander Naveed Babu and his two accomplices — Rafi Rather and Mir Irfan — from Shopian to Srinagar on Friday evening, official sources said.

“On Saturday morning, they set out for Jammu, from where they were planning to go to New Delhi. However, before moving out of Kashmir, we were able to apprehend them on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Wanpoh in south Kashmir,” they said.

Singh came under the scanner of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday morning when he visited Shopian to pick up Babu and his two accomplices.

“We were tracking their movement from Shopian and before they reached Singh’s house in Srinagar, a police party in civvies was already near his residence keeping a watch over their movement secretly,” said the police.

The police recovered two AK-47 rifles from his house, where fresh raids were carried out on Monday. Officials said Singh had ferried the Hizb commander to several places, including Jammu, last year.

Babu, a resident of Nazneenpora in Shopian, deserted the police in 2017 from central Kashmir’s Budgam along with four rifles and joined the Hizb ranks. He is allegedly involved in the killing of 11 non-local truckers and traders after the abrogation of Article 370.

Afzal Guru, 2001 Parliament attack convict, had written a letter to his lawyer in 2004, explaining as to how “DSP Davinder Singh”, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police of the J&K Police’s Special Operations Group at Humhama, Jammu and Kashmir, asked him to “take Mohammad”, a co-accused in the Parliament attack case, “to Delhi, rent a flat for his stay and purchase a car for him”.

An FIR was filed against Singh under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

A former counter-insurgency officer, Singh was presently posted at the sensitive Srinagar international airport. He is also seen in recent pictures receiving foreign envoys at the Srinagar airport.

Policeman suspended

DSP Davinder Singh was suspended on Monday as it emerged that he had sheltered three terrorists arrested along with him at his house in Srinagar right next to 15 Corps Headquarters at the Badami Bagh cantonment. He is deemed to have been suspended after having completed 48 hours in police custody. PTI

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