The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday questioned Salwinder Singh at its headquarters here in connection with the Pathankot terror attack, following the former Gurdaspur SP’s conflicting statements before the Punjab Police.
The NIA has also moved to secure a Black Corner Notice from Interpol to ascertain the identities of the four terrorists killed in the airbase attack and sent some body parts to the Central Forensic Science laboratory (CFSl) for testing.
Meanwhile, during searches conducted at Pathankot airbase on Monday, the NIA team recovered AK-47 magazines, a mobile phone and binoculars.
Earlier, the NIA, which took over the case from the Punjab Police soon after the terrorists attacked the airbase during the intervening night of January 1 and 2, summoned Singh as he had claimed that he was “abducted” by the terrorists on December 31.
However, the SP’s statements are at variance with those of his cook Madan Gopal and his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma.
“The SP has been giving contradictory statements about his abduction and the sequence of events preceding and succeeding the alleged hostage event,” official sources said.
The agency suspects that Singh might not have been travelling in his official vehicle and the nexus between local police and Pakistan-based drug syndicates is also under scrutiny, sources said.
“Huge quantities of drugs are smuggled into Punjab from Pakistan on New Year’s eve,” sources said.
The agency will arrange a confrontation between Singh, Verma, Gopal and the caretaker of a religious shrine close to the border which the former SP had allegedly visited and once Singh consents, he will be subjected to a lie detector test, the sources said.
“The NIA has also summoned Singh’s cook Madan Gopal to the headquarters for questioning, and if need be, the two would be brought face to face to corroborate their statements,” a Home Ministry spokesperson said.
The NIA has also recorded the statement of the caretaker of the shrine at Pathankot. Singh claimed he was a regular visitor to the shrine, but his claim was refuted by the caretaker.
The caretaker, who is related to the cook, had told the sleuths that Gopal and Verma had come in the morning of December 31 and again in the evening. The caretaker was not aware of the reason for these visits, official sources said.
The NIA has also asked the caretaker to come to Delhi on January 13 as his statements were also contradictory, the sources said.
Meanwhile, a Home Ministry spokesperson said the NIA has moved to secure a Black Corner Notice from Interpol to ascertain the identities of the four terrorists killed in the airbase attack.
The NIA team recovered AK-47 magazines, a mobile phone and binoculars from the IAF base in Pathankot during the searches conducted on Monday, the spokesperson said.
The NIA has also sent some body parts to CFSl to ascertain whether they belong to the remaining two terrorists who were involved in the 100-hour-long gunbattle with security forces which left seven personnel dead, the sources said.
NIA teams are working across Punjab and are examining witnesses and carrying out search operations at the encounter site as well as outside the base, he said.
In a related development, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Monday briefed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the ongoing probe into the Pathankot airbase attack and the need to secure Defence installations in the wake of continuing inputs suggesting lurking threat to such facilities.
Parrikar is learnt to have given a dressing down to Army chief Dalbir Singh Suhag for keeping mum during the operational planning relating to the counter-offensives like the one executed recently at Pathankot and later on using the “dirty tricks department” to plant stories in the media.
Doval had on January 1 chaired a meeting with the chiefs of Army, Air Force, Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and National Security Guard to finalise the operation at Pathankot airbase. The operation was commanded by the NSG and the Army was used for supporting action. Following the operation, reports appeared in a section of the media criticizing the move.