Jaipur-Mumbai train firing: RPF constable refuses to take narco tests

Chetan Singh, the accused, in the custody of the police on August 7. File pic/PTI

RPF Constable Chetan Singh, who gunned down three passengers and a superior on the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express last month, on Friday refused to undergo a narcoanalysis test after the Government Railway Police (GRP) sought the Borivli metropolitan magistrate court's permission to carry out the procedure on him.

According to sources, Singh was produced before the court on Friday and the GRP sought three days of additional police custody of the accused as well as permission to make him undergo brain-mapping, polygraph and narcoanalysis tests.

The GRP also submitted a consent form signed by Singh earlier. However, the latter's lawyer opposed the move to carry out the tests and later the accused himself refused to undergo them. The court then sent Singh to judicial custody for 14 days.

Singh's lawyer, Amit Mishra, told mid-day, "The GRP had produced a signed consent form which was showing that Singh was ready to take all kinds of forensic tests, including narco-analysis, brain-mapping and polygraph. The court asked Singh in front of the probe agency that if he had given his consent, then why was he denying it now. The latter then stated that the GRP had forcibly made him sign the consent form."

The train on which the tragedy unfolded at Mumbai Central station on July 31. File pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Two DCP-rank officials approached the court and filed an application seeking permission to interrogate Singh as he was their employee and the incident happened in a moving train, he added.

A source told mid-day that after Singh refused to consent to undergo the tests, the bench asked him to write down why he was opposed to the procedures.
"When the court asked Singh to elaborate on his opposition to the tests in writing, he started acting like an illiterate person and wrote only a few lines that were grammatically correct. He then stopped writing and told the court that he agreed with whatever his lawyer had said. He also expressed his desire again to meet his family, especially his children," the source said.

When GRP officials told Singh before the court that his wife and mother had come, he was happy but expressed dismay at the absence of his children, the source added.

July 31
Day Singh took 4 lives

33yrs
Age of accused

The tragic incident

On July 31, Singh allegedly shot and killed his superior officer, Assistant Sub-Inspector Tikaram Meena, as well as three passengers on board the moving Jaipur-Mumbai Central Express. His arrest ensued when passengers managed to pull the train's emergency chain, bringing it to a halt near Mira Road station on the Mumbai suburban network. Singh was apprehended while attempting to escape.