By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plaint by a state politician alleging that the government, against his wishes, was bent upon putting him to lie detector and brain mapping tests to ascertain his role in a two-year-old double murder in Lucknow.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. Sathasivam issued notice to the state government on a lawsuit by former student leader Abhay Singh questioning the legality of his being put to brain mapping and “other scientific tests of questionable credibility”.
Singh also questioned his being put to the tests at a time when the probe into the case was already over and he had already secured bail after the police failed to find any evidence against him.
While issuing notices to the state government, the bench extended its Feb 6 order, restraining the state government from putting Singh to brain mapping and narco-analysis till the disposal of his lawsuit against the government’s move.
In his lawsuit, Singh said the move to put him to lie detector and brain-mapping is all the more questionable as the police wants to subject him to these tests at a time when it had already finished the probe into the murder case and has already filed its investigation report.
In his support, Singh cited a magisterial court order, which had said that there was no legal provision to force an accused to polygraph, narco-analysis and brain mapping, specially when the accused has been released on bail and the police has already filed the chargesheet in the case after completing its 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 that set aside the magisterial court’s order.
The case against Singh pertains 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 first indicted three people, but later implicated Singh also as the person who had arranged the gun for the killers.
Singh, however, has submitted in the apex court that he was in a jail on the date of the incident and it was not possible for him to arrange any gun for anyone while in prison.