CBI for narco test on Jagan

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The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed a petition in the special CBI court seeking permission to conduct a BEAP (brain electrical activated profile) test, a lie detector and narco-analysis test on Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his auditor, Vijay Sai Reddy, on the grounds that information regarding suspected hawala deals needs to be elicited.

The court has posted the petition to June 14 after the counsel for Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy opposed holding any such tests. The CBI said oral and documentary evidence has surfaced against Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy and Vijay Sai Reddy during the investigation. “Jagan is the main beneficiary of all the ill-gotten money through various dubious methods including the suspected hawala method. Vijay Sai has emerged in the investigation as the main “king-pin” and the conspirator with Jagan in committing offences,” CBI SP Mr H. Venkatesh said in the petition.

“During the police custody Jagan, who is a repository of the entire information, documents and details of the alleged hawala transactions is keeping all the information close to his chest and only reveals that Vijay Sai Reddy is in knowledge of most of the transactions,” the CBI petition said. The agency alleged that the investigation revealed a chain of circumstances and multiple conspiracies involving individuals and companies in the city, other parts of the country and also in overseas.

“During sustained questioning in CBI custody, Jagan cleverly with an intent to derail the process of investigation is avoiding to reveal any tangible information with regard to transactions and overseas accounts,” the CBI alleged. The agency recalled that the court had, on February 28, 2012 allowed the CBI to issue letters rogatory to six countries. The CBI claimed that the scientific tests are internationally acknowledged and accepted for deriving information and they cause the subject no bodily harm. The information so obtained is not admitted as evidence in a trial but it does help the investigation, the CBI said.

The CBI said these are softer alternatives than third degree methods used by investigators. In narco analysis, sodium pentothal is given intravenously which lowers inhibition in the subject and he talks freely. Defence counsels for Mr Jagan Mohan countered the CBI argument and pointed out that there is a Supreme Court ruling which says that without the consent of the accused the test cannot be conducted. The CBI court has already rejected the tests on Vijay Sai Reddy.

Experts equate narco tests to third degree
Forensic and legal experts say that narco analysis and BEAP (brain electrical activated profile) tests are unscientific and inhuman political tools of torture. Even the narco reports by the Bengaluru lab proved false in the Macca Masjid blast case where Muslim youth were forced to take the test and confess on RDX. However, the investigations later revealed that the Masjid blast was the handiwork of right wing elements. Narco analysis was also used during Hitler and Stalin’s regimes to obtain confession from political dissidents.

Dr P. Chandrasekharan, renowned forensic expert, said, “It is barbarism and psychological third degree. Police officials are lured by pseudo scientists to the practice of narco analysis to extract confessions. The life-threatening side effects of sodium pentothal are circulatory depression, respiratory depression and anaphylaxis. Its effects on central nervous system.” Scientists also say that polygraph tests depend on trickery and not science. Ashok Reddy, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy’s counsel, said, “SC has ruled that forcible use of narco-analysis, polygraph and BEAP is illegal, inhuman and degrading.”