The interrogation of the arrested deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Devinder Singh has been entrusted to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as questions are being raised on the political set up of the state and also top officers of the Police for keeping mum for 16 years and giving sensitive postings to him even after the executed Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru had in 2004 “exposed” his links with terrorism.

Davinder Singh was on Saturday arrested with two top terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) while he was driving them in a car to probably make them escape to Jammu where they might be planning a terror strike.

Among the militants arrested with him was a policeman turned terrorist commander, Naved Babu, who had last year deserted with four sophisticated AK 47 assault rifles and joined the HM. Naved had reportedly stayed in the house of the DSP in the neighbourhood of the Srinagar based headquarters of the strategic 15 Corps in the Badami Bagh Cantonment that is engaged in anti-terrorist operations in Kashmir.

Sources said Naved was allegedly involved in the killing of about a dozen policemen and eleven truckers from Punjab and Rajasthan and also apple traders recently in South Kashmir.

At the time of his arrest, the DSP was working in the crucial anti-hijacking wing at the sensitive Srinagar Airport that always remains on a high level of alert due to the threat of hijack of the civil aircraft.

He was also seen in a group photograph with the officers of the civil administration, police, and Army receiving the foreign envoys in the technical area of the Indian Air Force (IAF) at the Srinagar Airport during their last week’s visit to assess the situation in Kashmir. The visit of the envoys was planned by the central government and the Army.

It is intriguing as to why the top brass of the police and the central and state intelligence agencies remained silent on the alleged role of the DSP in the terror attack on the Parliament although the mastermind of the attack Afzal Guru had in a letter to his lawyer in 2004 is reported to have written that how Davinder Singh, who was at that time posted in the special operations group (SOG) of the police had asked him to take Muhammad, a co-accused in the Parliament attack, to Delhi, rent a flat for his stay, and purchase a car for him.

The terror attack by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit on 13 December 2001 on the Parliament came when Atal Behari Vajpayee of BJP was the Prime Minister. Afzal Guru was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on 9 February 2013 during the Congress regime.

The DSP has now been booked under the Unlawful Activities Act and was put under sustained interrogation by a joint team of officers of the Army, BSF, CRPF, ITBP, J&K Police, and central and state intelligence agencies. However, the Home Ministry has now entrusted his interrogation to the NIA that was already investigating terror-related cases in J&K.

Five grenades, three AK assault rifles, and some ammunition was seized from the residence of Davinder Singh, sources said.

A resident of Tral in South Kashmir, Davinder Singh had joined the police as a sub-inspector in 1990 and was allowed to go scot-free despite several controversies which included extortion.

Davinder Singh reportedly has two properties in Srinagar and one in Jammu. He is building a palatial house in Srinagar just near the local headquarters of the Army. His family owns an orchard. Davinder’s wife is a teacher and the couple has three children, two daughters who are studying MBBS in Bangladesh and a school-going son.