At his Gulabi Bagh residence on Wednesday, Singh said, “That day, I was outside a dispensary in Shakti Nagar when three men suddenly surrounded me. They pointed a gun at my face and asked me to get into a car. Once inside, they threw a blanket over me; we drove for nearly seven hours and stopped outside a house where I was in confinement. I was locked in a room that had a charpoy and a closet.”

Singh’s narration lapsed into incoherence at points. Slightly delirious, he continued, “This Tuesday, early in the morning, unknown men came into my room and drove out with me. After a few hours, they threw me on the street.” A dishevelled Singh, in tattered clothes, was found unconscious near the Tulsiniketan police post area on Tuesday evening.

Singh’s disenchantment with the police force, and particularly with former commissioner K K Paul, began late in 2006, when his colleague Inspector Devendra Manchanda had committed suicide on October 12 that year after being suspended from duty by Paul. Manchanda’s family had moved the High Court seeking to register a criminal case against Paul for “abetting” suicide.

Several months later, in July 2007, K K Paul wrote to the Union ministry asking for security for himself and his family from Singh. Singh, who was “missing” at that time, had allegedly been threatening the former commissioner.

When contacted, Paul told Newsline, “The Crime Branch is investigating his charges. There is a case in the High Court too. The truth will come to light after the probe is complete.”