It is unusual for the BJP Government to let off a terror suspect. It is known to arrest even imaginary terrorists, parrots suspected to have arrived from Pakistan and of course the innocent, who are let off by courts after years of incarceration.
When the suspended DSP Davinder Singh was, therefore, dismissed from service in May this year, eyebrows were raised. A few had also pointed out that the Lt Governor of J&K had dispensed with the inquiry against the police officer. But with no reaction from the Government, it swiftly disappeared from even the social media radar.
But in late July, the controversy resurfaced with a photo copy of the notification becoming public. The operative portion that drew everyone’s attention was “… in the interest of the security of the state, it is not expedient to hold an enquiry in the case of Mr. Davinder Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Under Suspension) S/o Mr Deedar Singh, R/o Overigund Tral, Pulwama”.
The DSP had been arrested in January 2020 while allegedly ferrying two terrorists and an overground operative in his private car to Jammu. When challenged at a check post, he had tried to throw his weight around, dropped names and claimed that he was engaged in a secret operation.
Vijay Kumar, IG Police, addressed a press conference a day later. And said he had received specific intelligence that two militants in an Hyundai i10 car were travelling to Jammu. He had then directed DIG South Kashmir to put up a checkpoint and intercept the car.
Recruited as a Sub-Inspector in 1990, Singh was accused of selling contraband and faced an internal inquiry. He was also charged with extortion and had been suspended and sent to Police Lines on several occasions. Human Rights bodies reported that Singh was among four police officers accused in the June 2000 abduction, torture and extrajudicial killing of 19-year-old Aijaz Ahmad Bazaz of Gowkadal, Srinagar.
A media report at the time maintained, “His proper rehabilitation began in 2015 by the then Director General of Police K Rajendra, who posted him in district headquarters of Shopian and Pulwama. However, after some alleged wrongdoing during his stint in Pulwama, the then Director General of Police SP Vaid transferred him in August 2018 to the sensitive Anti-Hijacking Unit in Srinagar, though the move was opposed by some other officers.”
Nicknamed ‘Torture Singh’, reported Kashmir Times, he faced trial in yet another extortion case and the trial court directed the police in 2003 to take action after finding him and another DSP guilty. Anuradha Bhasin writing in Kashmir Times recalled that Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru had alleged that it was Singh who had tortured him and coerced him to work with him and who sent him to Delhi with the attackers.
Even more curiously, in a 3,604-page charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Singh was accused of extending support to Hizbul Mujahideen. His Pakistani handlers, the charge sheet claimed, had tasked him with establishing a contact in the Ministry of External Affairs for carrying out ‘espionage activities’. He was apparently in constant touch with a handler in Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, whose number he had saved as ‘Paki Bhai’.
Why would the Home Ministry under Amit Shah decide against holding any enquiry against such an accused? Why would he be dismissed even before his trial?
