Why was J&K's top cop SP Vaid removed unceremoniously

NEW DELHI: SP Vaid was unceremoniously removed as Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu and Kashmir because of the Centre’s displeasure with him over how he handled the Kathua rape and murder case.

On Thursday late night, the state administration, under the newly appointed Governor Satya Pal Malik, transferred Vaid to the transport department as its commissioner and replaced him temporarily by the Director General of Prisons, Dilbagh Singh, a 1987-batch IPS officer. The decision to appoint an acting DGP came even as the Supreme Court recently prohibited it countrywide and made it mandatory to get clearance of names from the UPSC. The J&K government, sources said, has already gone to the Supreme Court, in this connection.

Top sources in Srinagar and New Delhi told the TOI that though Vaid shared an excellent rapport with the BJP-led government at the Centre, the rift developed when the Kathua rape and murder investigation and chargesheet took a communal turn, triggering massive protests against police in Jammu region. Incidentally, Vaid himself is a native of Kathua in Jammu region. “He did his job as a professional, without any prejudice but the BJP in New Delhi did not appreciate it,” an official source in Srinagar said. However, sources in New Delhi disputed it claiming that Vaid “went by the then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s politically motivated orders instead of professionalism.”

The other point of discord arose, sources said, when adviser to Jammu and Kashmir Governor, K Vijay Kumar, a retired IPS officer who was senior security advisor in the union ministry of home affairs, began to assume the role of the “super DGP”. “In the last few months, there has been a concerted effort to undermine J&K Police leadership by governor’s office,” an official source said. Differences between Vaid and Governor's advisers, widened after he was divested of some administrative powers while strengthening the authority of ADG law and order Munir Khan.

The last nail in the coffin, sources said, was last week’s abduction of 12 relatives of policemen by terrorists in south Kashmir. They were all released unharmed but only after the embarrassment of acknowledging that the abduction was a quid pro quo to police’s highhandedness in picking up the father of a top Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah criticised DGP Vaid’s removal too. In a couple of tweets, Abdullah said that there was no hurry to replace Vaid if there was no clarity on the permanent replacement. J&K police “has enough problems without having to deal with the confusion of leadership,” he wrote.

However, sources in New Delhi said his removal was part of the broader reshuffle of the police administration. Vaid’s deputy Abdul Gani Mir was replaced by Dr B Srinivas as the new Additional Director General of CID, just a few days ago.

“It is a pity that the man who, with his sincere efforts was able to put the whole nation behind the J&K police in the last two years, has been removed unceremoniously. This has demoralised the J&K police hugely,” an inspector in Kashmir said.

However, SP Vaid in a tweet expressed humility and gratefulness for the opportunity he had been given “to serve my people and my country.”