With the preliminary report of the polygraph test on Punjab Police former SP Salwinder Singh suggesting he failed the test, the NIA on Thursday conducted searches at six places, including office and residences of the police officer, in connection with the Pathankot airbase attack.
Singh too admitted that he used to frequently visit Bangkok, considered a significant market for drugs, sources said. A lie detector test on Singh by the NIA was conducted on Wednesday as part of the probe into the attack on Indian Air Force base in Pathankot.
Following the adverse preliminary report of the polygraph test, Singh will now be subjected to behavioural tests. Singh will soon be produced before a team of scientists.
The panel will include a “behavioural analyst” and “psychoanalysts” which will give a scientific assessment of his personality.
The NIA is questioning Singh to ascertain the sequence of events that took place after he was allegedly kidnapped on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 by terrorists of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
The NIA also searched his jeweler friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal who were allegedly abducted by the JeM terrorists a day ahead of the attack at the Pathankot attacks.
The agency searched Singh’s residences at Amritsar and Gurdaspur besides his office at Gurdaspur. The sleuths also raided the residence of Verma, whose throat was slit by the terrorists after his abduction along with cook Madan Gopal. The investigators also searched the premises of Singh’s woman friend.
Searches came after interrogation of Singh by the NIA for several days in Delhi and inconsistencies during questioning and polygraph test.
NIA sources said the final report of the polygraph test is awaited but the suspicion of Singh’s conduct is growing. The NIA team had sought assistance of local police for conducting the searches.
NIA sleuths along with a police team reached the residence of Salwinder Singh at Chowk Jai Singh inside the walled city in Amritsar where the search operation was carried out.