By IANS
Ahmedabad : The Gujarat High Court has held that no consent of the accused is necessary to conduct a narco-analysis or brain-mapping test on him or her – a ruling that could also help in probing staged killings by police in the state.
Justice M.R. Shah delivered the judgement Friday in a case involving Santokben Jadeja, also known as ‘godmother’ for her alleged mafia background.
“Conducting or performing narco-analysis or brain-mapping test is part of investigation and the investigation agency does not require the consent of the accused. Otherwise, the agency will not be in a position to further investigate the case,” Shah ruled.
Santokben had challenged before the high court the order of the Junagadh sessions court granting permission to conduct such a test on her.
She had argued in her petition that the court’s permission for the test without consent of the accused violated Article 20(3) of the constitution that conferred a right to the accused to remain silent or not to give statement against himself or herself.
However, the court observed: “When the accused or person has not told the truth during the investigation, naturally that accused or person would not be voluntarily giving consent for the tests as he is always apprehensive that if the tests are conducted, then the same might go against him. Therefore, he is bound to not give consent.”
As for the constitutional protection for the accused, it noted: “Merely conducting two tests on the accused would not take away the protection guaranteed under Article 20(3) of the constitution.”
However, the judgement restricted the investigation agency against using the statement recorded during such tests as evidence against the accused, because it can be tantamount to violation of Article 20(3).
The high court’s ruling could affect several cases pending before lower courts seeking permission for conducting narco-analysis tests.
Notable among them is the case of a ‘fake encounter’ or killing in a fake shootout by police.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, was killed here in November 2005, with police terming him a terrorist. However, a plea before the Supreme Court by his brother has led to the arrest of three senior police officials, D.G. Vanjhara, Rajkumar Pandiyan and Dinesh Kumar.
The state in an appeal before a sessions court against a lower court order has sought permission to conduct narco-analysis test of the three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, who have objected to it.