Srinagar: There could be much more than corruption and extortion that led to the arrest of a J&K deputy superintendent of police (DySP), Sheikh Aadil Mushtaq, top sources said. “The disturbing disclosure made by a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative,Muzamil Zahoor, which was later corroborated by the expert opinion of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT), shows that the arrested police officer tampered with evidence to save a terror operative during the course of investigation carried out by him.
“Six-member SIT headed by SP south Srinagar has been assigned the investigation of this aspect of the arrested officer’s involvement,” sources said adding that at the time of the raid at his residence the DySP jumped from the window to evade arrest.
“He also formatted one of his cell phones so that police didn’t get any evidence against him. Later, during questioning he surrendered another cell phone to the investigating officer which was also formatted.
“In February this year, three persons, Umar Adil Dar, Bilal Ahmad Sidiqui and Salik Mehraj were intercepted by police in Nowgam area and during checking of the kit bag carried by Dar, Rs 31,65,200, one mobile phone and three letterhead pages of LeT were recovered.
“On personal search of the other two persons Sidiqi and Mehraj, five letterhead pages each of LeT were recovered from them.
“A case was registered in Police Station Nowgam and investigation was entrusted to DySP Sheikh Aadil.
“During questioning the arrested trio revealed that they were working as OGWs for LeT and money was sent to them by the handlers in Pakistan.
“Dar in his statement made on February 9 revealed that he had received Rs 25 lakh in 2019 and gave Rs 10 lakh to Bilal, Rs 10 lakh to one Zamrooda and Rs 5 lakh to one Yasmeen for the purpose of strengthening the LeT cadre in Srinagar.
“DySP Aadil didn’t arrest Zamrooda and Yasmeen after the disclosure made by Dar. He raided their house on March 6 which gave them enough time to destroy evidence. Thetwo women were later arrested on May 18 by another investigating officer.
“Police during the investigation arrested one LeT operator Muzamil Zahoor on July 19 from a Srinagar hotel. He had managed to open an account in a bank in Sopore in the name of Sheikh Inamul Haq by using his photograph and other documents.
“The documents revealed that Muzamil had received Rs 5 lakh into the account from Dar as terror money.
“The seized mobile phone along with the SIM of Muzamil Zahoor was sent to Director General ICERT which traced Muzamil’s telegram account to another telegram account which belonged to DySP Aadil and they were regularly communicating with each other between July 7 and July 19 till Muzamil was arrested.
“The ICERT report reveals that during the period DySP Aadil had actively guided Muzamil Zahoor to file a false complaint against the police officer who were involved in the investigation of the case in order to save Muzamil Zahoor.
“Muzamil paid Rs 2.73 lakh to the arrested officer who advised him to remain underground for a few months, but he contacted the arrested officer when his name surfaced in the case.
“DySP Aadil advised Muzamil and guided him in drafting the contents of the complaint against SHO Nowgam (New investigating officer) on telegram chat. Aadil also guided Muzamil in recording a video clip so as to save him. Muzamil recorded that video clip and sent the clip to him who put it up as tampered evidence to save the LeT operative”, sources said.
–IANS
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