How Srinagar SSP Dr G V Sundeep Chakravarthy unraveled 'doctor-terror module'

Chakravarthy, a medical graduate from Kurnool Medical College, had also overseen Operation Mahadev, in which security forces neutralised Lashkar-e-Taiba module.

Srinagar: The “doctor terror module” may have been conceived in secrecy, but it took a doctor in uniform to uncover it — and, in the process, prevent another tragedy from being written into India’s terror history.

Last month, a few Jaish-e-Mohammed posters appeared on walls in Srinagar’s Nowgam area — a routine act of propaganda in a city long familiar with the signs of militancy. But for Dr G V Sundeep Chakravarthy, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Srinagar, something did not add up. The language was unusually coded, the timing odd, and the location deliberate.

What looked like a small act of intimidation turned out to be a clue to one of the most sophisticated terror plots in recent years — a network run by highly educated professionals, including doctors.

The breakthrough began when Srinagar Police traced online footprints linked to the posters. The digital trail pointed towards suspects with medical and academic backgrounds, setting off alarms in the intelligence grid. Further leads reached Faridabad, where agencies recovered 2,900 kg of explosives — enough, investigators say, to cause multiple city-level blasts.

It was Chakravarthy’s analytical approach that knitted together these scattered strands. A medical graduate from Kurnool Medical College who later joined the 2014 batch of the Indian Police Service, he is known among peers for combining scientific reasoning with investigative instinct. “He dissects a case the way a doctor diagnoses disease — symptom by symptom, until the full pathology is revealed,” said an officer involved in the case.

Under his command, Srinagar Police employed cyber forensics, inter-state coordination, and discreet ground surveillance that eventually helped central agencies identify the full contours of the module. The investigation has now expanded to multiple states, with several individuals — including relatives and associates of the Kashmiri doctors — being questioned.

This is not the first time Chakravarthy has led a breakthrough. Earlier in August, he oversaw Operation Mahadev, in which security forces neutralised the Lashkar-e-Taiba module behind the deadly Pahalgam terror attack.

His calm leadership style and refusal to chase headlines have earned him quiet respect within the force.

As India’s security establishment confronts a new front of “white-collar radicalisation”, officers like Dr Chakravarthy embody a shift in counterterror strategy — one that relies as much on intellect as on instinct.

In Kashmir’s long and complicated fight against terror, this doctor-cop’s latest diagnosis may have just saved countless lives.