In ‘interest of security of the State’: Suspended DSP, 2 teachers sacked from service

On Thursday evening, J&K General Administration Department (GAD) issued orders terminating services of Singh, who was a DSP with J&K Police before his suspension. “…The Lieutenant Governor is satisfied after considering the facts and circumstances of the case and on the basis of information available that activities of Mr Davinder Singh…are such as to warrant his dismissal from service,” reads the order, issued by the Commissioner Secretary, GAD.

It stated that the L-G is “satisfied under sub clause (C) pf the provisio to clause (2) of Article 311…that in the interest of security of the State, it is not expedient” to hold an inquiry in Singh’s case.

Singh, who was awarded the President’s medal for gallantry in 2019 and had many stints with J&K’s Police’s elite anti-militancy force Special Operations Group (SOG), was arrested on January 11 last year while travelling in a car along with top Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Syed Naveed Mushtaq, and his associates Rafiq Ahmad Rather and advocate Irfan Shafi. They were on way to Jammu when intercepted by the police.

Singh has been under detention since January last year and the case against him is going in an NIA court after the agency took over his custody.

Singh was suspended from services a day after his arrest, and has now been terminated under Article 311 (2) (C) of the Constitution, which gives the administration power to terminate services of a government employee without constituting an inquiry against him or her. While Article 311(2) says that no government employee shall be dismissed or removed or reduced in rank, except after an inquiry, the sub-section (C) says this clause will not apply where the President of the Governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that it is not expedient to hold such an inquiry in the interest of security of the State.

The UT administration has also dismissed two government teachers — Bashir Ahamd Sheikh, a resident of Karnah in Kupwara, and Mohammad Yousuf Ganie, a resident of Trich village in Kupwara.

While the order is silent over the reasons for their dismissal, sources said that Sheikh, along with two other persons, was arrested last year at a checkpoint on Kupwara-Tangdhar road. The police had said they had recovered narcotics valued at Rs 50 crore and some arms and ammunition from their possession.