CRPF carries out vigilance check of over 3 lakh personnel

The CRPF has carried out a mega check amongst its over 3 lakh personnel to audit any possible "subversive" elements in its ranks in the wake of a JK Police DSP being caught with terrorists recently, the chief of the force said on Tuesday. CRPF Director General (DG) A P Maheshwari said the apprehension of DSP Davinder Singh is "a grave incident and an area of extreme concern" for the security forces.

"No security grid should be allowed to be weakened by such episodes. So, all forces have to keep an internal watch," he said.

"All forces should maintain vigilance so that there is no such type of subversion or some sort of intrusion within the force and to see that somebody is trying to collaborate with the adversaries," the DG told reporters. 

He added that DSP Davinder Singh being caught by JK Police along with terrorists was "a serious matter."

"But, if something happens somewhere, it is a case to revisit ourselves and that is what we have done and we have no doubt about our personnel."

"An isolated incident should not be taken as branding of any particular force (JK Police). The JK Police has tremendous contributions to normalising the situation (in Kashmir)," the DG said at a force camp.

Maheshwari said it was "common sense" to carry out such an audit of its manpower, deployed as lead force for counter-terrorist and anti-Naxal operations across the country, when any incident of an armed force personnel is caught in company of terrorist elements.

"We are further strengthening our systems...which were already in place," he said referring to the vigilance and intelligence checks conducted on their personnel in Kashmir valley and other places.

The Central Reserve Police Force has deployed close to 70,000 personnel in Kashmir valley for counter-terrorist and law and order duties.