Police sitting over lie-detector test reports? RTI query raises doubts

Chandigarh Tribune: Rohtak: Friday, 13 February 2015.

CBI’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) located in New Delhi has stated it handed over polygraph test reports of the complainants as well as the alleged accused in the infamous Sonepat sisters’ case to the investigating authorities in December.

In response to an RTI application, the CFSL authorities have maintained that the reports of the polygraph tests were prepared on December 29 and handed over to the investigating authority on December 31.

It is pertinent to mention here the polygraph tests of the accused were conducted on December 18 and 19 and of the complainants on December 22. However, the police are still to release the reports before the court, lawyers of the accused or the media.

Pradeep Malik, the counsel for the Aasan village boys accused of molesting two sisters of Sonepat on board a moving bus, has alleged that by hiding the reports, the police investigators were trying to shield the girls and mounting pressure on the boys for compromise.

“All eyewitnesses of the incident who have come forward to get their statements recorded have maintained that the boys were not at fault. Still, the police seem to be dragging its feet, putting a question mark on its intentions,” he said. Malik further alleged the witnesses were receiving threats, but they had not been provided security by the police despite repeated requests. Rohtak SP Shashank Anand failed to comment despite repeated attempts.

Pooja and Aarti, two sisters from Thana Khurd village in Sonepat district, had accused three boys of Aasan village in Rohtak district of molesting them on board a Haryana Roadways bus on November 28, 2014. The sisters had also thrashed the boys and lodged an FIR against them. The boys, who were arrested and later released on bail, had maintained that they had not molested the girls, and the real issue was getting a seat vacated for an elderly woman.

A SIT under a DSP-level officer had been constituted to probe the matter, but the investigations made in the case so far leave much to be desired. An all-caste, sarvkhap mahapanchayat was also organised at Bohar village in the district recently to settle the matter, but it remained inconclusive as no representative of the Sonepat sisters attended it.

The slackness of the police probe can be gauged from the fact that the challan has not been presented despite the passage of more than two months of the incident.