Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a dig at the Home Ministry’s decision to ask the National Investigation Agency to look into the case of Jammu and Kashmir police official Davinder Singh, who was caught with militants last week. Gandhi said giving the case to an agency headed by YC Modi would be the best way to cover it up.
A news report had claimed on Thursday that the Home Ministry had asked the agency to initiate the process of probing the case, and a formal notification of handing over the case would be issued soon.
“The best way to silence terrorist DSP Davinder, is to hand the case to the NIA,” Gandhi tweeted. “The NIA is headed by another Modi – YK, who investigated the Gujarat riots and Haren Pandya’s assassination. In YK’s care, the case is as good as dead.”
Gandhi was referring to NIA chief Yogesh Chander Modi, who was part of the Special Investigation Team that looked into the 2002 Gujarat riots. He took over as the central agency’s chief in 2017. Modi was part of the Central Bureau of Investigation team that investigated the murder of Pandya in Gandhinagar in 2013.
The former Congress president used the hashtag “WhoWantsTerroristDavinderSilenced”.
In a tweet on Thursday evening, Gandhi demanded that Singh be tried by a fast-track court within six months and if found guilty, he should be given the harshest sentence for “treason against India”. The Congress leader also shared a poster with a list of questions, including: “Why are Prime Minister [Narendra Modi], Home Minister [Amit Shah] and National Security Advisor [Ajit Doval] silent on Davinder Singh?”
On Thursday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi said Singh’s arrest raised disturbing questions that are important for the country’s national security. “It seems rather odd that he not only evaded detection but was entrusted with extremely sensitive duties like escorting foreign envoys to Jammu and Kashmir under the prevailing circumstances,” she tweeted. “Whose orders was he working under?”
Priyanka Gandhi also called for a complete inquiry in the case and said that helping militants plan attacks on India was treason.
Also read: Who is Davinder Singh, the Kashmir police officer arrested in a car with Hizbul militants?
Singh, who was caught with Hizbul Mujahideen militants in a car last week in Kulgam, was posted as the deputy superintendent of police at the Srinagar airport. He allegedly escorted the militants from Shopian in South Kashmir to his home last week and allowed them to stay overnight.
The militants were identified as top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naveed Babu, and his accomplices Irfan and Rafi. The four reportedly set out for Jammu on January 11 morning, and planned to go to New Delhi from there.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has ordered that security at airports in Srinagar and Jammu would now be under the Central Industrial Security Force. The state administration on Wednesday also “forfeited” the Sher-e-Kashmir Police Medal for Gallantry awarded to Singh. The administration’s order said that Singh’s act amounted to disloyalty and brought the police force into disrepute.
Singh’s office at Srinagar airport, where he was posted in the anti-hijacking squad, has been sealed. Two AK-47 rifles from the car, and a rifle and two pistols were recovered from his home.
In 2013, Afzal Guru, the prime accused in the 2001 Parliament attack case, had claimed that Singh had asked him to accompany one of the attackers to Delhi and arrange his stay there.
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