NEW DELHI: In a major boost to investigating agencies, the Delhi high court strongly came out on Tuesday in support of narco-analysis, saying the “test is essential in view of growing terrorism-related cases and heinous crimes”.
The test involves administering truth serum to suspects of crime.
“The use of narco-analysis is of particular relevance in the context of terrorism-related cases, conspiracy to murder and other serious offences where investigating agencies do not have vital leads,” a single-judge bench of justice Manmohan said.
“In my opinion, narco-analysis does not suffer from any constitutional infirmity as it is a step in aid of investigation and any self-incriminatory statement, if made by the accused, cannot be used or relied upon by the prosecution,” he said and asked petitioner Shailender Sharma, accused of murdering his nephew, to undergo the test within two months.
“It is necessary to keep in mind the necessity of society at large and the need of a thorough and proper investigation against individual rights while ensuring that constitutional rights are not infringed,” the court said.
A suspect is injected with truth drugs that make him uninhibited, but they do not guarantee the veracity of his/her statements. People who are under the influence of truth serums enter a hypnotic state and speak freely about anxieties or painful memories. The subject’s imagination is neutralised when semi-conscious, making it difficult for him or her to lie and his or her answers would be restricted to facts of which he or she is aware.
Narco-analysis first reached the mainstream in 1922, when Robert House, a Texas obstetrician, used the drug scopolamine on two prisoners. Since then, narco-testing has become largely discredited in most democratic states, including the United States and Britain.
There is a vast body of literature calling into question its ability to yield legal truth. Additionally, narco-analysis has serious legal and ethical implications. It may be recalled that the supreme court had also observed that narco-analysis would do away with the third-degree treatment meted out to suspects by police.
The court’s judgment on constitutionality of the test is awaited.
b_rakesh@dnaindia.net
