Acting on specific intelligence inputs that two militants were travelling in a vehicle on the national highway towards Jammu, a team headed by the Shopian Superintendent of Police in Jammu and Kashmir intercepted the vehicle. Along with two militants, a resident who is also an advocate, listed in police records as an OGW (overground worker), and a decorated deputy superintendent of police, posted with a strategic department at the airport, was caught. DSP Davinder Singh, who was in line for a promotion as superintendent of police, was posted at the anti-hijacking unit at the Srinagar airport, was the law enforcement official caught by the police.
An uproar followed. Davinder Singh's name had also surfaced during investigations for the 2001 Parliament attack when convict Afzal Guru had alleged his role in the incident. In a letter written in 2013, Afzal Guru, who was executed after being convicted for the Parliament attack, explained how "DSP Davinder Singh", the then deputy superintendent of police of Special Operations Group, had asked him to "take Mohammad", a co-accused in the Parliament attack case, "to Delhi, rent a flat for his stay and purchase a car for him", according to multiple reports. However, probes then had found nothing against Singh.
Asked about possible investigation into Davinder Singh's role in the Parliament attack, Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbagh Singh said, NDTV reported, "Aspects can be looked into if anything comes to light. There's no bar to any aspect being looked into. Like the adviser to the Governor said, black sheep can be found anywhere. Be it anybody, we don't spare anyone involved in unlawful acts."
His arrest resulted in the opposition parties, especially the Congress, clamouring for re-investigation into the incidents involving Singh. "Who is Devinder Singh? What's his role in 2001 Parliament Attack? What's his role in Pulwama Attack, where he was Dy SP DR? (sic)," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet. "Was he carrying Hizbul terrorists on his own or is he only a pawn, as master conspirators are elsewhere? A bigger conspiracy?," he added.
-Inputs from PTI
