BANGALORE: The Home Ministry should withdraw the manual on narco analysis as it does not give a clear picture about the test, P. Chandra Sekharan, senior forensic scientist and former Director of Forensic Sciences Department, Tamil Nadu, has said.

In a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Sekharan said the manual released by the Department of Forensic Science under the Home Ministry carried disinformation about the laboratories in the country conducting such tests, and it ignored the negative aspects and risk factors involved.

The manual made tall claims that the revelations made in the test could be verified by two other tests, polygraph and brain mapping, which, he said, was not a fact.

Mr. Sekharan questioned the statement in the manual that many forensic science laboratories in the country were using the narco analysis test in which suspects were examined under a "state of trance."

He said the test was not being conducted in the three Central Forensic Science Laboratories directly controlled by the Department of Forensic Science.

More than 50 forensic science laboratories in the country and laboratories elsewhere in the world were not forthcoming to conduct polygraph, brain mapping and narco analysis tests, he said.

Only one State laboratory had been conducting the narco analysis test for the past three years, he said.

Mr. Sekharan also questioned the delegation of power of interrogation to a psychologist, a non-police official.

The same individual was also conducting the two other tests. The psychologist was using narco anaylsis as a last confirmatory test.

Mr. Sekharan said the Home Ministry should take a serious note of the situation and evolve a policy decision not to use this test for interrogation.

It would indeed be necessary to refer the matter to the Supreme Court and seek its advice, he added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail