Army, Police, and Rival Jewellers: Inside the Plot to Frame a Kashmir Family

Security forces in Jammu & Kashmir found AK-47 ammunition. Pakistani currency notes, and militants' posters during raids at a local jewellery shop in Poonch town's main market on September 19. The initial instinct was to treat it as a terror case.

However, the probe took an unexpected turn, unraveling a series of phone calls and messages seemingly from Pakistan, a business rivalry, and a conspiracy to frame a family in a terror investigation.

According to Amandeep Singh, an employee at the rival jewellery business, Sajjan Jewellers, and Mumtaz, an old history-sheeter in police records, the plot had the Singh brothers, owners of Sajjan Jewellers, at its centre. The police's suspicion that the material had been planted was later confirmed by Poonch SSP Shafqat Hussain.

Who said it had been placed on the premises by someone else.

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• Amandeep Singh and Arvind, employees at Sajjan Jewellers, have been taken into custody for allegedly being involved in the conspiracy to frame the family of Davinder Singh, owner of Ruby Jewellers.

• Mumtaz, a man from Surankote, has been arrested for allegedly buying the incriminating materials found at Ruby Jewellers.

• The police claim that the Singh brothers, owners of Sajjan Jewellers, were the masterminds behind the plot.

• The family alleges that attempts to frame him in some terror case had begun around the same time he returned home two-three months ago.

The rivalry between Ruby and Sajjan Jewellers has been a long-standing one, with the two businesses having a bitter history. The police began to dig deeper into the rivalry and the phone calls and messages seemingly from Pakistan. Which led them to Mumtaz and Amandeep Singh.

• The police had raided the family's premises earlier. Claiming to have traced a call from a Pakistani number to one of their family members, but found nothing incriminating.

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• On April 21, Rupinder Kour was assaulted by the Singh brothers after she allegedly objected to liquor bottles being thrown at their house, and an FIR has been registered in that case.

• The police sent the seized material to a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for analysis. And the results are expected to be out soon.

The police are now looking for two others, brothers Gagandeep Singh and Hardeep Singh, who they claim masterminded the plot.

• The family is cooperating with the police and is seeking justice for the alleged conspiracy against them.