NIA clears Punjab SP Salwinder in Pathankot attack case

Senior Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh, who was being probed by the NIA in connection with Pathankot terror strike, was given a clean chit by the National Investigation Agency after the scientific tests including the lie-detector test found nothing adverse against him, according to official sources.

Singh, an SP-rank officer who has been coming to the NIA headquarters for last fortnight, was subjected to several rounds of questioning besides scientific tests including lie-detector test.

Searches at various places against him including his native place in Amritsar yielded nothing and documents recovered showed nothing incriminating against him, official sources said.

The NIA was trying to ascertain whether he had any role in the drug racket being run in the bordering districts of Pathankot and Gurudaspur.

On the intervening night of December 31 and January one, Singh was kidnapped along with his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal by Pakistani terrorists who later attacked the Pathankot Air base.

The kidnappers released Singh and the cook but slit the throat of Verma before dumping him on the road and speeding away.

The terrorists carried out a 80-hour long terror strike at the IAF base from the intervening night of January 1 and 2 in which seven security personnel were killed.

Four bodies of terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed group were killed in the attack.