DSP Davinder Singh on other side of table at interrogation centre

Once on the other side of the table and dictating the line of questioning, Deputy Superintendent of Police Davinder Singh was grilled by a police officer after being arrested on Saturday while allegedly ferrying two wanted terrorists to Jammu.

This is, however, not the first time that Singh has been in the news for the wrong reasons.

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".

However, the angle was probed and could not be substantiated with any evidence, the officials said.

The arrest of the decorated officer, while accompanying two wanted terrorists to Jammu days before the Republic Day, has again raised the questions posed by Guru.

Senior police officers probing the case have expressed surprised over his role in it and have said that the first question posed to the officer by all investigators is "how could you do this".

The investigators have been grilling him extensively.

Singh, who was awarded the President's police medal last year, had been on the radar of the police for some time and a special watch was mounted on him.

On Friday, Singh ran out of luck when his conversation with Naveed Baba, the self-styled district commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen and a former policeman, was picked up by the intelligence agencies.

The entire operation was monitored by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Kashmir) Atul Goyal who himself stood at an intersection to intercept the vehicle.

As the car approached the checkpoint, the vehicle was stopped and the four were arrested. Singh, who tried to throw his weight around the policemen present, faced Goyal's ire.

Immediately, police teams were sent to various places, including Singh's residence from where two pistols and an AK rifle were seized.

Part of counter-insurgency teams in the past, Singh would now have to face a tough questioning at the joint interrogation centre.