Custodial assault case: Odisha court allows polygraph test of suspended police officer

Bhubaneswar: A court in the Odisha capital on Wednesday allowed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to conduct a polygraph test on a suspended police officer in connection with the alleged torture of an army officer and sexual assault of his fiancée in custody.

The court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Somya Ranjan Nayak also granted permission to CID to take Dinakrushna Mishra, the suspended inspector-in-charge of Bharatpur police station, to Gandhinagar in Gujarat for conducting the polygraph test.

Under polygraph test, also known as a lie detection test, a person's physiological responses to questions are analysed to determine whether the person is lying or telling the truth.

Before granting permission to the CID for the test, the court sought consent of the accused police officer who said that he had no objection to being subjected to the scientific investigation.

"I am innocent. I am not involved in the commission of the offences as alleged against me. I do not have any objection to undergo narco-analysis, polygraph or brain finger printing tests. I am giving my consent on my own accord and free will," the accused police officer told the court.

The court accepted the CID's proposal to conduct polygraph test of the accused police officer after realising that the sequence of the events in this case occurred within the four walls of the police station without any eyewitnesses and therefore scientific methodology may give a proper direction to the investigating agency to reach at the truth, the order said.

The CID also pleaded before the court that the investigating agency was finding it difficult to confirm the veracity of the allegations and also the counter allegations in the absence of CCTV cameras at the police station.

An army officer was allegedly subjected to torture and his fiancée to sexual assault by policemen when they went to Bharatpur police station on September 15 to lodge a complaint of road rage.

Earlier in the day, the CID recreated the alleged crimes at Bharatpur police station and on Chandaka Road where the army officer and his fiancée were allegedly harassed by a group of youths.

The Odisha Police had earlier suspended five police personnel, including the IIC of Bharatpur police station, in connection with the incident. Seven engineering students were also arrested on the basis of the road rage complaint and later released on bail.