NIA summons Punjab Police SP Salvinder Singh, his friend

NIA today summoned three persons, including SP of Punjab Police Salvinder Singh for questioning in connection with the Pathankot terror strike as the agency is still awaiting a Letters Rogatory from the Pakistan side so that the evidence could be shared with them legally. National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials said that Salvinder 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. NIA has conducted a lie-detector test on all the three and given them a clean chit.

All the three were allegedly kidnapped on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 allegedly by Jaish-e-Mohammed 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 IAF base from the intervening night of January 1 and 2. Seven security personnel were killed, while four bodies of terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed were recovered.

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

Meanwhile, NIA is still awaiting a Letter Rogatory from a Pakistan court so that the evidence collected during the probe can be handed over to the SIT “legally”.