Jaipur Express firing: Cops seek to subject RPF constable to narco, brain mapping, polygraph tests

The railway police in Mumbai have requested permission from a court to conduct narco analysis, brain mapping, and polygraph tests on a constable who allegedly shot dead four people, including his superior, on a train. The court is expected to make a decision on the request on Friday.

MUMBAI: The railway police has sought permission from a court to conduct narco analysis, brain mapping and polygraph test on Chetansinh Chaudhary, a constable of Railway Protection Force (RPF), who allegedly shot dead four people, including his immediate superior, on Jaipur–Mumbai Central Superfast Express on July 31.

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The Chaudhary’s counsel on Thursday opposed the plea on various grounds. The court after hearing both the sides reserved its orders and is likely to pronounce the same on Friday when the accused will be produced before the court for his custody remand.

“Said incident is extremely sensitive and serious in nature and therefore it is necessary to obtain detailed and comprehensive information about the incident,” said a plea filed by the Government Railway Police (GRP) before the metropolitan magistrate court in Borivali on Tuesday.

“In this regard, enquiry is being made with the accused as regards the information received from eyewitnesses of the incident and technical evidence, but the accused is giving very little information about the incident and the motives behind it,” added the plea.

The plea said that this information could be gathered from the accused only if he is subjected to narco analysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests and therefore urged the court to grant them permission to subject the accused to the scientific tests.

Chaudhary’s counsel advocate Amit Mishra on Thursday opposed the plea on various grounds, including the adverse effects of these tests on the health of the person.

The court can permit the police to subject Chaudhary to scientific tests only if he consents. Besides, under the prevailing law, the results of these tests are only considered as a tool to help the police in their investigation and is not admissible as evidence during the trial.

Chaudhary allegedly shot dead four persons, including his immediate superior ASI Tikaram Meena and three Muslim passengers, on-board the long-distance train while it was passing through suburban Mumbai.

Chaudhary allegedly shot dead Meena in B5 compartment of the express train with his ARM rifle following a quarrel with him and then purportedly killed a passenger, Abdul Kadan Bhanpurwala, in the same compartment.

The Chaudhary then moved to coach B2 where he allegedly woke up Sayed Saifuddin and took him at gun point to the pantry where he shot him dead.

Chaudhary then killed his last victim in coach S6, a sleeper coach, where he allegedly shot dead a passenger Azghar Ali. The investigation so far has revealed that Chaudhary had selected his targets carefully, after confirming that they were Muslims by asking their names first.