Jaipur Express shootout: RPF constable refuses narco, brain mapping tests

MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court on Friday rejected the plea by the Government Railway Police (GRP) seeking permission to subject Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetansinh Chaudhary to narco analysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests after the cop refused to give his consent for the test. Chaudhary has been arrested for killing four persons on board the Jaipur–Mumbai Central Superfast Express on July 31.

Metropolitan magistrate Shivdutt Patil also rejected the GRP’s plea to extend his police custody by three more days and remanded the 33-year-old constable to judicial custody for 14 days.

According to Chaudhary’s lawyers, the GRP had submitted an application to subject the accused to narco analysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests as he was not co-operating with the investigation. They said they were yet to find out the motive behind the RPF constable’s motive behind killing his senior, assistant sub-inspector Tikaram Meena and three Muslim passengers.

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While the GRP application had Chaudhary’s signature consenting to the tests, when the magistrate court asked him about it on Friday, the cop said he was forced to sign the application and that he did not agree to the tests.

Witnesses in the case have revealed that Chaudhary selected his three other targets - Abdul Kadan Bhanpurwala, Sayed Saifuddin and Azgar Ali carefully and asked them their names before killing them.

GRP officers said that they are unable to corroborate the statements of the witnesses and sequence of events with the accused and get a clear picture about his motive. The application also stated that the nature of the crime was very serious and sensitive, and they needed permission to conduct the tests.

Advocate Amit Mishra, who represented Chaudhary, said that he was being “mentally harassed” by the police. “He was not even able to write the word ‘police’ today. Although he has been eating his meals, he is suffering from discomfort. He even asked to remove his face mask but the magistrate asked him to wear it when he exited the courtroom,” said Mishra.

Mishra added that the police have not yet allowed him to meet his family in spite of permission given by the magistrate.

After the accused was remanded to judicial custody, the Railway Police Force (RPF) moved an application to the court to allow them to question Chaudhary to conduct their ongoing enquiry into the incident to find out whether there were any lapses. The magistrate has reserved the application and asked for the response from GRP’s investigating officer.