Tainted J-K cop Davinder Singh's links with Afzal Guru to be probed

J&K Director General of Police (DGP), Dilbag Singh, told reporters that since Davinder Singh has been accused of being involved in nexus with the terrorists, his role in the Parliament attack conspiracy would also be thoroughly probed.

"Nobody will be protected. Whosoever has disgraced his uniform and tried to tarnish the image of J&K Police will get the punishment he deserves.

"The role of Davinder Singh in the Parliament attack and his criminal links, if any, with Afzal Guru will be probed," Dilbag Singh said.

In 2013, Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru had told his lawyer and also issued a statement that Davinder Singh had tortured him and threatened to kill his family unless Guru agreed "to do a small job" for him.

Guru said Davinder Singh told him to carry a terrorist to Delhi, rent a flat for him there and also buy a secondhand white Ambassador car for the use of the terrorist.

The allegations levelled against Davinder Singh by Afzal Guru in 2013 were not looked into as the state police and the intelligence agencies dismissed the allegations 'as a figment of Afzal Guru's imagination'.

Sources have confirmed that Afzal Guru was interrogated by Davinder Singh at the Humhama interrogation centre on the outskirts of Srinagar city after the former's arrest by the SOG where Singh was posted.

The police chief said the department has recommended dismissal of Davinder Singh from service and also forfeiture of the gallantry award given to him by the previous state government in 2018.

The DGP also said keeping the highly sensitive nature of the case in mind the UT government has requested the NIA to take over the investigations into this case.

"It has been decided that the case will be handed over to the NIA," Dilbag Singh said.

It must be mentioned that since Davinder Singh was a gazetted officer holding the rank of the Dy.SP, his dismissal from police service can only be ordered by the Union Territory government headed by lieutenant governor, G.C.Murmu.

Highly placed sources told IANS a team of the NIA is reaching here within the next three or four days to formally seek the custody of Davinder  Singh and Naveed Baba, the dreaded terrorist who was arrested with Singh on Saturday on the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

It is also important to mention that Naveed Baba, who was second in command of the Hizbul outfit, is accused of killing 11 civilians, including non-local labourers, truck drivers and fruit merchants in south Kashmir districts after August 5 last year when Article 370 was abrogated.

A top source said it will also be investigated whether the arrested police officer had any direct or indirect role in those killings.

Recruited as an assistant sub-inspector in 1990, Davinder had a meteoric rise in police department becoming a Dy.SP within a short period of 10 years.

His promotion to the rank of the superintendent of police (SP) was under consideration before he was arrested, sources added.