NIA takes over probe into DySP Davinder Singh arrest

Two days ago, the Ministry of Home Affairs approved the transfer of the case to the NIA.

“Three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists and one DySP of J&K Police were arrested along with arms and ammunition while they were travelling in a car, near Qazigund on the national highway. In this regard, a case was registered in PS Qazigund as FIR No. 05/2020 dated 11.01.2020 u/s 7/25 Arms Act, 3/4 Explosive Substances Act and s. 18,19,20,38, 39 of UA(P) Act by the J&K Police. After receiving MHA’s order, NIA has re-registered this case as RC no 01/2020/NIA and started the investigation,” said an NIA statement.

The DGP had said they were also open to a probe into Davinder Singh’s alleged role in the 2001 Parliament attack. “If that issue also comes up during ongoing investigations, it can also been probed,’’ he said.

In 2004, in a letter to his lawyer Sushil Kumar, Afzal Guru, then lodged in Tihar Jail for his involvement in the Parliament attack, had said that “DSP Davinder Singh”, then posted with J&K Police’s Special Operations Group at Humhama, had asked him to “take Mohammad”, a Pakistani national identified as one of those who carried out the Parliament attack, “to Delhi, rent a flat for his stay and purchase a car for him”.

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Afzal Guru was convicted and hanged on February 9, 2013.

Davinder Singh, who was posted with the J&K Police anti-hijacking unit at Srinagar airport, was arrested with top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed Baba; Rafi Rather, a resident of Batpora, Shopian, who joined militancy in July last year; and Irfan Shafi, an advocate and resident of Diaroo Shopian, from a private vehicle, at a checkpoint on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, on January 11.

Naveed Baba was the second-in-command of the Hizbul Mujahideen’s operational chief in the Valley, Riyaz Naikoo.