Quint Exclusive: I’m Not an Anti-national, Says SP Salwinder Singh

“I am not an anti-national,” says SP Salwinder Singh in an exclusive interview with The Quint.

Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh. (Photo: The Quint)

In an exclusive conversation with The Quint, Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh said that he has faith in the system, and has not been involved in any anti national activity. Singh was questioned by the NIA for the fourth consecutive day in Delhi.

<p><i>NIA mujhe 10 baar bulaye ya 100 bar, jo sach hai me wahi bol raha hu aur bolta rahunga. Akhir me sach ki hi jeet hogi, yeh mera vishwas hai</i>. (NIA can call me 10 times or even 100 times for questioning. I have been telling them the truth and will continue to do so. Truth will win).<br></p>

<b>SP Salwinder Singh to The Quint</b>

Singh also added that he had done nothing wrong and has been cooperating with investigators all through. On Thursday, the NIA also questioned Singh’s cook Madan Gopal. According to a source in the NIA, Gopal fainted when he entered the NIA HQ in the morning. Gopal has been questioned to verify Singh’s statement.

<p><i>Mujhe pata nahi NIA kya dhoond rahi hai, lekin maine unhe sab sach bata diya hai. Main deshdrohi nahi hu.</i> (I don’t know what NIA is looking for from me. I am not an anti-national).<br></p>

<b>SP Salwinder Singh to The Quint</b>

Apart from Gopal, the shrine caretaker Som Raj was also questioned by the NIA. All three – Salwinder, Gopal and the caretaker – were questioned separately by the investigators on Thurday. Before we could ask further questions, Salwinder stopped us by saying that the investigators have told him not to interact with the media.

Why Salwinder is Still a Mystery

A jawan guarding the National Investigation Agency HQ in Delhi. (Photo Reuters)

A top official in the NIA told The Quint that Singh is consistent in his testimony from day 1, but some evidence gathered by investigators show that he is not being entirely truthful.

<p>Salwinder’s call details don’t match with the sequence of events, narrated by him, on 31 December before he was abducted by the terrorists. For instance, at a given time, Singh told us that he was present in location A, but the CDR shows that he was in location B. That’s why we feel that he is hiding something from us.<br></p>

<b>Senior Officer, NIA</b>

The investigators are also questioning Singh’s Personal Security Officer (PSO) separately, who didn’t accompany him to the shrine. According to investigators, Singh told his PSO not to come with him, which is slightly unusual.

The long route taken by Singh to reach the shrine is also raising doubts . Salwinder drove from Taloor to Fatehpur, Mangwal and Bamial before reaching Kolian, where he claimed he was waylaid by the terrorists and then abducted. The SP could have followed a shorter route (Taloor-Fatehpur-Narot Jamail Singh) to Kolian instead.

<p>Right now we don’t feel the need to conduct a polygraph test on him, until and unless we are sure that we will get something concrete out of it. Singh has been sticking to his statement.<br></p>

<b>Senior Officer, NIA</b>

The investigators also confirmed that the beacon light mounted on top of Singh’s car was not working, and that the terrorists came to know that Singh was a Superintendent of Police only after he was released.

The fate of Singh is still uncertain, but investigators hinted fact that it’s “very unlikely that Singh is involved in the terror link”. So far, there is no evidence to link Singh to the terrorists. But nothing can be ruled out till the investigation is over.

The NIA is trying to find out similarities between the Dinnagar terror strike and the Pathankot Air Base Attack.