‘Conclude Verma’s lie-detection test this month’
CONTROVERSIAL ARMS DEALER ABHISHEK VERMA IS A WITNESS IN A CASE IN WHICH CONG LEADER TYTLER HAS ALREADY REFUSED TO UNDERGO THE TEST
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday directed that the polygraph test of controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, should be concluded by this month end.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Amit Arora, who appointed former director of prosecution BS Joon as its commissioner to oversee Verma’s lie-detector test, fixed the next date of hearing in the matter on December 15 after the advocate gave his consent to the appointment.
The court had on October 30 appointed Joon as its commissioner to supervise the test on Verma’s plea alleging that a forensic lab here was trying to shield Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, who has been given clean chit in the case, during the polygraph tests carried out earlier.
In his application, Verma had sought setting up a panel of eminent persons, including a judicial officer, to observe the proceedings during the test.
Senior advocate Harwinder Singh Phoolka, appearing for the 1984 riots victims, said the consent document of the former director of prosecution was given to the court.
Verma, who has been undergoing polygraph test at the government-run forensic science laboratory at Rohini in west Delhi, alleged in his application to the court that officials of the FSL were holding a “mini trial” and acting in an “unfair and biased” manner.
While Tytler, who has been given a clean-chit thrice by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the riots case, has refused to undergo the lie detector test, Verma gave conditional consent to undergoing the test if he was provided roundthe-clock security. He claimed he has a threat to his life on account of being a witness.
The court had on August 2 asked the CBI to conduct the test on Verma. The case relates to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Tytler had denied his role in the riots, but the court ordered further investigation despite the CBI having submitted closure reports in the case thrice in the past.
The victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI’s case closure reports in the matter.
The court had on December 2015 directed the CBI to further investigate the matter and decided to monitor the progress every two months to ensure no aspect was left uninvestigated.
The agency had reinvestigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report.