NIA summons Punjab Police SP Salvinder Singh, two others

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday summoned three persons, including Punjab Police SP Salvinder Singh, for questioning in connection with the Pathankot terror strike as the agency is still awaiting a Letters Rogatory from Pakistan so that the evidence could be shared with them legally.

Officials in the NIA said Singh, his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal have been summoned for a routine questioning as the agency is preparing to receive a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) from Pakistan on March 27.

This is a routine investigation as some formalities have to be completed before a charge-sheet is filed in the case, the officials said. The NIA has already conducted a lie-detector test on all three and given them a clean chit. 

The three were allegedly kidnapped on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists, who had launched an audacious attack on the Pathankot IAF base on January 1 morning.

While Verma was left on the road with a slit throat, Gopal and Singh, currently posted as Assistant Commandant of 75th battalion of Punjab Armed Police, were released some distance away before the terrorists left for the air base.

The terrorists were engaged in an 80-hour gunbattle with the security forces at the airbase from the intervening night of January 1 and 2. Seven security personnel were killed, while four bodies of JeM terrorists were recovered.

Confusion relating to other two bodies still remains with the NIA now contemplating to send their samples afresh to second CFSL laboratory.