Poster To plot: Srinagar SSP cracks Jaish network of radicalized doctorsSRINAGAR: It took a doctor-cop to catch a “white-collar” terrorist network of doctors. When Jaish-e-Mohammed posters appeared overnight on Oct 19 across Nowgam-Bunpora in Srinagar, warning security forces of “dire consequences”, most residents brushed it off as a ghost from Kashmir’s violent past. For Srinagar SSP Dr GV Sundeep Chakravarthy, the signs were too deliberate — and too dangerous — to ignore.By dawn, he had ordered a case under UAPA, Explosive Substances Act, and Arms Act at Nowgam police station. CCTV footage combed frame by frame revealed three men. They were detained. Interrogation led to one name — Moulvi Irfan Ahmad of Shopian, who had led prayers at Nowgam mosque since 2020.Police teams moved fast. Ahmad’s Shopian home was searched. Another residence in Nowgam was examined. Digital footprints traced from his communications pointed to operatives beyond J&K — connections stretching into Haryana and UP.A team was dispatched. In coordinated follow-up action, police took custody of Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie, a doctor from Pulwama working in a Faridabad medical college and allegedly linked to the Jaish network. What had begun as an inquiry into wall posters turned into the exposure of a sophisticated cross-state, “white-collar” module. Three Nowgam residents were also held.A senior officer called the effort “a thorough forward-and-backward investigation that mapped every link in the chain”. “It was a good investigative effort that led to the arrest of doctors based in UP and Haryana. During questioning, more links were identified, which led to seizures, including IED-making material,” the officer said.For Chakravarthy, the 2014-batch IPS officer, this was another chapter in a career defined by frontline counterterror operations. Born in Kallur in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool, son of retired govt medical officer Dr GV Rama Gopal Rao and health department official PC Rangamma, he studied medicine at Kurnool Medical College and graduated in 2010. He served there briefly as a doctor before trading the stethoscope for the service revolver.On Aug 14, he received his sixth President’s Police Medal for Gallantry for his role in multiple antiterrorism operations in J&K. He took charge as SSP Srinagar on Apr 21 this year. The Poster probe now stands as one of his most intricate investigations — one that allegedly peeled back layers of radicalization and revealed an unlikely alliance of a moulvi, medics, and modules.
