Update at 9:00 PM
Hours after being granted bail by an NIA, Kashmir’s Counter-insugency wing re-arrested Para, as confirmed by sources. PDP chief Mufti questioned this action, requesting L-G Manoj SInha to intervene.
After being in NIA custody for one-and-half months, PDP youth president Waheed-ur-Rehman Para was granted bail by Special NIA court on Saturday. Slapped with a surety amount of 1 lakh rupees, Para was arrested by NIA on November 25 for alleged links with Hizbul Mujahideen in the ex-J&K police DSP Davinder Singh case. The NIA is planning to challenge Para’s bail in the Jammu-Kashmir High Court, report sources. Waheed has been asked to submit his passport to NIA and not to leave J&K without prior permission, as per sources.
Para granted bail
Previously, the NIA court had granted permission to the NIA to conduct a lie detection test on Para. NIA Sources report that NIA that Para was allegedly aiding Hizbul activities in South Kashmir in 2019. Para was allegedly in touch with Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naveed Babu and advocate Irfan Shafi Mir, state NIA sources.
Standing firmly with arrested PDP Youth Wing chief Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, party chief Mebooba Mufti asserted that Para had ‘no connection whatsoever with ex-J&K police DSP Davinder Singh’. Sharing a video of former Home Minister Rajnath Singh lauding Para for his work strengthening democracy (when the BJP-PDP government was in power in J&K), Mufti said that these were attempts to blackmail & intimidate PDP & other mainstream political parties in J&K. Alluding to Davinder Singh’s connection with the J&K admin, she said ‘everyone knows at whose behest he worked for’.
NIA chargesheets Davinder Singh & 5 others
In July, NIA filed a charge sheet against former J&K Deputy SP Davinder Singh and 5 others under several IPC sections including Arms Act, according to a press release issued by MHA. The other charge-sheeted are Hizbul terrorist Syed Naveed Mushtaq, his brother Syed Irfan Ahmad, Hizbul terrorist Rafi Ahmad Rather, advocate Irfan Shafi Mir and ex-LoC trader Tanveer Ahmad Wani. All of them are still in NIA custody in Jammu.
Davinder Singh was arrested while ferrying two Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants in a vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway earlier this year. He was suspended in January even as it emerged that he had sheltered three terrorists, arrested along with him, at his residence here right next to the Army’s XV corps headquarters at Badami Bagh cantonment. Singh, who was decorated with President Police Medal last year, was grilled by a team of police and intelligence investigators. His office at Srinagar airport, where he was posted as deputy superintendent of police in the anti-hijacking squad, was sealed. Police had carried out searches at his residence and seized two pistols and an AK rifle beside a large quantity of ammunition.