Anupam Dasgupta for DNA

MUMBAI, Jan 2: The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the city police had debunked Abu Salem’s claim of torture in custody. They said their interrogators could break him without laying a finger on him. Experts in mind games, that’s what we were told they are.

It now seems Salem is no spring chicken when it comes to mind games. News coming in from Bangalore, where he underwent some tests, is that the gangster mostly lied to the ATS. The brain-mapping and polygraph (lie-detector) tests found that 90 per cent of what he told police was fiction.

“Salem only occasionally revealed real information during interrogation,” a senior police officer, who accompanied him to Bangalore, said. “The truth — which conclusively proves his role in plotting builder Pradeep Jain’s murder —emerged in the course of the two tests.”

ATS officials still do not know the result of the more sophisticated narco-analysis test that was also carried out on Salem. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory will courier all the reports to the ATS.

The officer said Salem lied about his role in sending gunmen to kill Jain. He also lied about his relationship with gangster Anees Ibrahim in the run-up to the builder’s murder and his share of the money extorted from Jain.

“Salem handpicked the shooters and decided to eliminate Jain,” the officer said. “He shared a close relation with Anees at that time.”

Joint Commissioner of Police KP Raghuvanshi said verification of Salem’s “confessions” would be done once the ATS gets the reports.

Priyatosh Tiwari, Salem’s lawyer, said the defence team has not yet got access to the CFSL’s findings.