After five days of questioning and continuing suspicion over his statements, former Punjab Police SP Salwinder Singh on Tuesday was subjected to a lie-detector test in connection with the ongoing NIA probe into the Pathankot airbase terror attack case.
As part of the lie detection, Singh was questioned by a team of experts from the Central Forensic and Scientific laboratory here. He will be quizzed again on Wednesday, official sources said.
Singh is being questioned to ascertain the sequence of events that took place after he was allegedly abducted on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 by the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, who subsequently hit the airbase early in the morning on January 2.
Singh came under the scanner after he claimed that he was released by the terrorists and the other two occupants of his car — his cook Madan Gopal and jeweler friend Rajesh Verma — were later thrown out by the jehadis. Verma’s throat was claimed to have been slit by the terrorists but he survived.
The agency, officials said, is looking to establish the correct sequence of events so that the wider probe into the larger conspiracy progresses well.
Also his statement that he was returning from a shrine, which he often visited, was found to be incorrect after the NIA sleuths questioned the caretaker of the dargah, Somraj, who told the probe agency that the police officer had come for the first time on the evening along with his cook and friend.
While the accounts given by a suspect or an accused during the polygraph test are not admissible in court under the Evidence Act, the statements can help the agency in unraveling the conspiracy.
The NIA had on Monday sought permission from the designated court to subject him to the polygraph test. The agency had also informed the court about the “inconsistencies” in his statements before the Punjab Police and NIA following which the court allowed the terror probe agency’s plea for the polygraph test.