By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday halted the Uttar Pradesh police plan to put a small-time politician out on bail to lie detector and brain-mapping tests to ascertain his role in a double murder last year.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam restrained the Uttar Pradesh police from subjecting former student leader Abhay Singh to various tests after he questioned in his plea the legality of the move.
Singh said the move to put him to lie detector test and brain-mapping is all the more questionable as the police have already finished the probe into the murder case and filed the investigation report.
He said the police wanted to subject him to these tests though he already has been able to secure his bail in the murder case because the police had failed to frame him in the false case.
In his support, Singh cited a magisterial court order which said there was no legal provision to force an accused to polygraph, narco-analysis and brain-mapping, especially when the accused has been released on bail and the police have already filed the charge sheet in the case after completing their probe.
The magisterial court had refused to allow the police to put Singh to various tests, saying that it violated his fundamental right to have a free and fair trial.
But on a plea by the police, the sessions court later set aside the magisterial court’s order. The Allahabad High Court too later endorsed the sessions court order.
The case against Singh pertained to the death of two men in Lucknow in firing by three unidentified miscreants on March 31, 2007.
After registering the case and probing it, the police found three people guilty, but later implicated Singh also for allegedly providing the gun to the killers.
Singh, however, has said in his plea before the apex court that he was in jail on the date of the incident and it was not possible for him to arrange any gun for any one while being in the jail.