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Updated: Jan 15, 2020 10:21 IST

The Jammu and Kashmir Police will investigate arrested officer Davinder Singh’s links with 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, if required, said a senior official who did not wish to be identified, adding, “but the current case is not directly connected to the 2001 Parliament attack case. It will have to be a decision of the investigating team”.

The JKP (Jammu and Kashmir Police) arrested Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Davinder Singh after he was intercepted escorting two terrorists last Friday. They were caught by police on the national highway in Kulgam district on January 11. Along with Singh, Naveed Babu alias Babar Azam, a resident of Nazneenpora in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, and his associate Asif Ahmad were arrested. Both are wanted Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists. Advocate Irfan Ahmad Mir, who was travelling with them, was arrested as well.

Guru was convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case and was hanged to death on February 3, 2013. In a letter to the court, Guru had alleged that he was following the instructions of Davinder Singh who was then posted in the crucial Special Operations Group (SOG) of JKP. Guru’s allegations against Davinder Singh, however, did not receive much attention then.

“We have caught him in the company of terrorists, a high-level probe headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police of South Kashmir is underway,” Director General of JKP Police Dilbag Singh said. “The premises of Davinder Singh, the arrested officer, had been searched twice resulting in recoveries,” he said. The JKP has recovered a Russian made AK-47, grenades and a huge amount of ammunition from his house in the posh Indra Nagar in Srinagar.

“The arrested officer has claimed that he was carrying out an operation. Unfortunately, the evidence gathered is not in his favour,” the top cop of Jammu and Kashmir said

The arrested officer was posted in the anti-hijacking unit positioned in the Srinagar Airport and therefore could not have been engaged in covert counterterror operations.

Dilbag Singh also referred to the arrested officer’s stint with the special operations group of JKP and said that “you develop sources in the opposite side” as part of the job to prevent terror attacks. Refusing to divulge details of the findings of the probe, DGP Dilbag Singh said, “Sources are essential to counterterror operations and they need to be handled and run very carefully as per the procedure. Using sources for personal gains is terrible.”

The initial investigation indicated that this was not the first time that Davinder escorted the two terrorists through the counter-insurgency grid in the valley.

The JKP is looking at previous cases handled by the Davinder Singh and investigations against him carefully. This is not Davinder’s first brush with the law. In 1993, then a sub-inspector, Singh was posted at the Ram Munshi Bagh Police Station in Srinagar when he was investigated for extorting money from a drug cartel. Davinder and another officer allegedly allowed the suspects to go free after being paid off and later sold the seized narcotics.

A JKP police probe then had recommended action against Davinder and his colleague which included dismissal. The recommendation, however, was ignored by the JKP. Davinder was moved to the crucial special operations group.