Curious case of Punjab SP: When victim is a suspect too

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3

Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who was “let off” by a group of terrorists who had kidnapped him, remains at the centre of the investigation into the Air Base attack.

“I am a victim in the terror incident and I am being wrongly accused of misconduct in my personal life. I am clear and an investigation, if any, will prove it soon,” he told The Tribune.

Salwinder also lodged an FIR at the Narot Jaimal Singh police station about his kidnapping last evening.

Salwinder said he was not in the detention of any security agency, after his reported questioning all day yesterday.

A departmental Sexual Harassment Committee headed by an IG-rank officer had visited Gurdaspur last week after five women constables, posted with the district police, accused him of sexual harassment. A senior official involved in the inquiry said the SP was transferred pending further inquiry and on administrative grounds to PAP, Jalandhar, two days before the terrorists waylaid him.

It is ironical that the SPis a prime witness as well as a suspect, considering the coincidence that he was travelling on the route taken by the terrorists in the wee hours.

While being questioned on his kidnapping claims, investigators are also probing his personal conduct.

Pathankot SSP RK Bakshi, however, said that Salwinder was a complainant and not a suspect, “He is neither an accused nor a suspect. The other complaints against him are unrelated with the Pathankot police or with the terror attack.”