On the Saturday afternoon, the Jammu and Kashmir police intercepted a Hyundai i-10 at the Police Blockade (Police Naka) in Kulgam area. In the car there was the J&K’s Deputy Superintended of Police (DSP), Davinder Singh along with 2 of the top terrorists from Hizbul Mujahideen group.
Amongst the 2 terrorists, one was Naveed Babu, who is the the 2nd in command after Riyaz Naikoo. Naveed Babu is said to be the mastermind of various attacks where over dozen of police personnel lost their lives. He is the same person who was behind the killing of non J&K resident truck drivers and fruit farmers in Jammu and Kashmir after the Central Government abolished Article 370.
The second terrorist was identified as Asif Rather who is also a listed terrorists and joined the organisation just 3 years ago.
The operation of catching the DSP Singh was pre planned and the car was intercepted by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Atul Goel himself. Aul Goel has spent years in the NIA (National Investigation Agency) and recently returned to the J&K Police cadre.
Also Read: PMVVY Senior Citizen Investment Scheme: Click To Know Details
On the other hand, the DSP Davinder Singh was also a highly decorated officer and was even posted in Srinagar Airport’s anti hijacking unit.
The 57 year old DSP, Singh, was on police’s radar from several weeks, the police team lead by Shopian Superintended of Police (SP), Sandeep Chaudhary was the first ones to intercept the call which they informed to their seniors without any delay.
Davinder Singh went to Shopian to bring the two Hizbul terrorists to Srinagar including Naveed Babu to reach Jammu. According to the intelligence sources “the real motive was to help Naveed and his aide to move out of Kashmir to Pakistan”. According to the sources, a lawyer, Irfan, who has travelled to Pakistan at least 5 times was given the task to make proper arrangements and paper works for the terrorists so they can pass the border.
There are investigations in place now to check whether any documents were forged.
According to sources, the DSP Davinder Singh took Rs. 12 lakh for the task and seemed very comfortable with the company of the cop killer terrorist, Naveed, upon being caught.
On the Saturday morning, Davinder Singh left his home in Srinagar and was moving very fast, however, the accused were stopped just before the Jawahar tunnel as the policemen feared that if they have crossed the tunnel connected to Jammu it would have next to impossible to track the car.
As the police conducted a search operation at DSP Davinder Singh’s home in Indiranagr, Srinagar, they recovered 2 AK47 rifles along with 5 grenades.
The officials said that the only reason why such a decorative officer like Singh would help these terrorists could be money, and on the suspicion of Singh helping terrorists in the past as well “cops are carefully scanning CCTV footage at the airport too”.
Davinder joined the police force in 1990s as a Sub-Inspector and recently completed his graduation from the Amar Singh College, Srinagar. In the past, Singh, has been a part of various controversies throughout his career and even though there were red flags around him in the past he got away with them due to track record.
As per the officials “It was Davinder Singh’s track record in counter-terror operation that got him immunity. Several inquiries followed however no action was ever taken”. A CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) officer said that in the late 1990s Davinder Singh had bravely fought in an encounter in Spopre, Kashmir.
In his 10 years in the SOG (Special Operations Group) in the 1990s, his performance was so good that he was given an instant promotion to the post of Inspector. In his early days he was alleged in many illegal activities like selling “Contraband” (A form of Charas) after getting hold of it from a peddler he nabbed. There were allegations of extortion.
Also Read: Military Deployed To Tackle Wildfire in Australia
However, the biggest of them all was when he was linked with the terrorist attack on the Parliament. Afzal Guru, in a letter to his lawyer, said that Davinder Singh asked him to smuggle a terrorist to Delhi and arrange for his accommodation. However, now action or inquiry was conducted against Davinder Singh even after his name surfaced in Afzal’s letter. Afzal was hanged in 2013 for the part he played in the parliament attack.
Davinder was a decorated officer, having served in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in 2003 in Kosovo for a year, he was also the recipient of the prestigious President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Services in 2019.
However, after he was caught red handed, a senior police officer said “JK Police is a professional force, he will be dealt with as a terrorist”.
Davinder, who belongs to Tral, has gaining parents and a brother who live in Delhi, he has a wife who is a teacher and 3 children, 2 of them are daughters who are pursuing MBBS in Bangladesh, and a son who is attending school. Nearing his retirement, it seems his luck finally left his side, a policeman said “there is no getting away from this unpardonable mistake of being a traitor”.
Davinder, in the interrogations, said that he was bringing the terrorists after they had surrendered however, the interrogators found the claims to be untrue. With multiple agencies now probing into his career and his links with illegal activities, his career went from being “Decorated” to “Disgraceful”.