JOIN USPunjab police officer Salwinder Singh, who is under scanner of National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his role in helping Pathankot airbase attackers, will undergo a lie detector test next week after investigators found holes in his claims about being abducted by the terrorists.
The NIA will move court on Monday seeking permission for the lie detector test. Singh has in principle given his consent for the test.
Official sources said Singh, a Superintendent of Police, has not been able to give a convincing reason for his visit to a shrine near Indo-Pak border in Punjab, his abduction by terrorists and reason for keeping four mobile numbers.
Singh, who was questioned for the fifth day in Delhi, has told investigators that the terrorists abducted him, his cook Madan Gopal and a jeweller-friend Rajesh Verma on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 while they were returning in his car.
However, there was mismatch between statements given by Singh, his cook and friend as well as the caretaker of the shrine Somraj. Investigators believe that terrorists had used smugglers’ network to enter India and used the services of Singh without telling him their real motive.
Though Singh claimed that he was a frequent visitor to the shrine, sources said they have reasons to believe that he visited there for the first time just before the abduction. Somraj is learnt to have told investigators that he had seen him for the first time on the day he was “abducted”.
There were also inputs that Singh used to take remuneration in diamonds from the smugglers’ network.
The officer was on Friday confronted with Gopal and Somraj, sources said, adding it was necessary as Singh was changing statements frequently.
Moving ahead with its probe, NIA asked the CFSL to trace the serial number of AK-47 rifles and revolvers recovered by the NIA from the airbase. The plan is to share the details with manufacture and ascertain the country from where it was shipped.
Sources said investigators are also examining whether the binocular used by terrorists and recovered from the airbase belonged to the US Army. Details are being shared with the US authorities to ascertain where the equipment was lost, they added.