Davinder Singh - a decorated J&K police officer arrested in a car with Hizbul terrorists
New Delhi : On Saturday, two Hizbul militants were arrested in a vehicle on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in South Kashmir. The third person sitting with them in the vehicle shocked almost the whole nation.
Once a decorated officer, known for his bravery against the militants in Kashmir valley, Devinder Singh was also present in the vehicle.
Last year, he was among the 76 Jammu and Kashmir policemen who were awarded the president’s police medal.
On Thursday, he was clicked with the diplomats who paid a visit to the valley, he was the part of the official team responsible for welcoming them.
According to the police, the vehicle was bound for Jammu. "SP [superintendent of police] Shopian had got a specific input that two militants in an i10 vehicle were travelling towards Jammu," said Vijay Kumar, the inspector general of police of Kashmir at a press conference in Srinagar on Sunday. "Since the vehicle was moving at a fast speed, SP Shopian informed me and I directed DIG South Kashmir to place a checkpoint in his area."
The four men were first detained at the Wanpoh area of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district and later they were arrested by the police officials. Vijay Kumar said that the arrested police official will be treated "at par with militants".
In the FIR, the cops have booked the four men under various sections of the Indian Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities [Prevention] Act.
Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had earlier named the arrested cop in a letter to his lawyer, saying that it was Devinder Singh who had asked him to send a man and arrange his accommodation in Delhi. That man went on to become one of the militants shot dead as they attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001.
Afzal Guru was hung to death in February 2013 for his role in the operation.
In the earlier interrogations, it has been learned that Devinder Singh was acting like a carrier to the militants.
"The plan was that nobody would stop or check a vehicle in which a DSP was travelling," he said. "The primary impression is that Davinder did it for money. However, investigations are still going on."
At the press conference on Sunday, Kumar said Singh had been involved in a number of anti-militancy operations. “But the situation in which he was caught yesterday, driving a militant in a vehicle to Jammu, it’s a heinous crime and we are treating him the same way we treat a militant,” he said.
