With the Pathankot anti terror operation ending, the focus has now shifted to investigations with the agencies suspecting that the version of prime witness Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh has several discrepancies.
While the National Investigating Agency (NIA) is investigating the matter, Punjab Police too has registered cases and looking at all angles, including the role played by its own officer in the entire episode. Salwinder Singh was taken to the shrine and all the places associated with the terror attack, along with the exact place from where his vehicle was snatched.
The agencies are probing the police officer’s role in the incident for over 24 hours before the actual terror attack took place on Saturday.
Interestingly, what has created suspicion is inconsistencies in the statements of not only the SP Salwinder Singh, but also his cook Madan Gopal and his jeweller-friend Rajesh Verma, regarding the same incident. This has led to the SP being put under the scanner. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been questioning all three since Tuesday evening.
Salwinder Singh was taken to the entire area from where he claimed that the terrorists overpowered him and his two co-passengers in the XUV 500 in which he was traveling and was later comandered by the terrorists. The crime scene was reconstructed by the NIA which took along the SP with them.
One of the discrepancies in their statements is regarding the number of terrorists. While Verma, who travelled the most distance with the terrorists, said there were four terrorists, the police officer and his cook were not sure and said they were 4-5 terrorists.
Another inconsistency was about the terrorists hitting them with rifle butts. While Verma and the cook had bodily injuries, the SP had none. Also, the SP claimed that he could not hear much of what the terrorists were talking among themselves. Verma said they talked to their “commander” and addressed each other as “alpha” and “major”.
Investigators are baffled by the fact that the terrorists killed the Innova taxi driver, Ikagar Singh, by slitting his throat and stabbing him and also attempted to slit the throat of the SP’s friend Verma, leaving him with injuries. Why did they spare the SP, who did not even have a scratchIJ
The police officer, Salwinder Singh, is claiming that he and two others were stopped in his Mahindra XUV and abducted by 4-5 heavily armed terrorists near Kolian village on Dec 31 night around 11.30.
He claimed that he and the cook were dumped in a drain in a forest area by the terrorists after some distance, unharmed, but with their hands, legs and mouths tied. He said that both his mobile phones were taken away by the terrorists.
The cook, Gopal, however, said that the police officer still had one phone with him with which he contacted his senior.
The officer’s friend Rajesh Verma has claimed that the terrorists threw him in the boot of the multi-utility vehicle and drove towards the Pathankot air force base.
The investigators are looking into the reasons why the SP was travelling so late in the night in the border belt to go to a shrine as he claimed. Why did he take that particular link road on the fateful night when, by his own admission, there was another road link to the shrine, where he claimed he had gone to offer prayers, in Kathua district of adjoining Jammu and KashmirIJ He even claimed that he did not know anything about this ‘short-cut’ road.
NIA is also questioning him why he was not carrying his gunmen in the vehicle with himIJ Normally, all Punjab Police officers have gunmen with them when they travel in the state. He is also being questioned why he was he not carrying his official weapon with him at the time of the incident.