24 February,2011 09:14 AM IST | | Kaumudi.Gurjar
Judicial Magistrate First Class R L Wankhade yesterday rejected the police plea to conduct narco-analysis on army jawan Brijeshkumar Singh (26), who is suspected of being an agent of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Singh, who was in the Signal Regiment, was allegedly in contact with a civilian, Vishambar Agarwal, who the police suspect had contacts with Pakistani spies. The police wanted to conduct brain-mapping and narco-analysis on Singh to get him to reveal his connection with Agarwal, a transport company employee.
Rejecting the order, the court observed that the grounds mentioned in the application were not sufficient to ask the accused to undergo the test. Defence counsels Advocate Sagar Kothari and Advocate Narayan Pandit submitted their say yesterday on the proposed narco-analysis.
"As per Article 20(3) of the Constitution, the test is barred. These tests do not have success and are a testimonial compulsion," Kothari said. The investigative agency had said that Singh was not cooperating with them and was not revealing his links with his Pakistani contacts. They also said that he was not providing details about any other documents he had handed over to Agarwal. "The arrested suspect has refused to give his consent for the test, which shows he has something more to hide," said Police Inspector Bhanupratap Barge. "Now we have to rely on other methods, like call records, to establish his links with the other accused."
