New Delhi: Former Uttar Pradesh MLA Udai Bhan
Singh, facing trial in a murder case, has opposed recording of
testimony of a lie-detection expert in a Delhi court saying it
cannot be held as a credible piece of evidence.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini deferred the recording of
testimony of polygraph expert A K Singh after the counsel for
the accused MLA strongly opposed the move saying that in law,
such statements cannot be treated as evidence.
The lie-detection test is conducted for corroborating the
main evidence and hence, the outcome of such tests cannot be
relied for securing conviction of the accused, the defence
counsel said.
The court took into the account the plea and deferred the
recording of statement of the forensic expert to September 9.
CBI prosecutor, on the other hand, said the witness can
testify as there are various case laws in support of recording
of statements of such witnesses.
The court then asked CBI to submit rulings of superior
courts in support of the contention.
Earlier, witness Sarvesh Narain Shukla testified that the
former MLA was inimical to his family and had plotted the
murder of his uncle Rakesh Pandey, an eyewitness to a triple
murder case.
The former lawmaker was also an accused the triple murder
case, allegedly witnessed by Pandey.
Pandey, who was to testify in 2003 in a Uttar Pradesh
court against the MLA and others in the triple murder case,
was first threatened and later killed as he did not buckle
under the pressure of the accused.
The case was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court on
the ground that Udai Bhan Singh, a former Samajwadi Party MLA,
allegedly killed a witness of the triple murder case and a
fair trial was not possible against him in a UP court.
Singh and his accomplices have been charged with killing
Pandey on the morning of February 17, 2003 at Gopiganj police
station at Sant Ravidas Nagar district near Varanasi.
Initially, the MLA and nine others were arraigned as
accused for killing Pandey. However, three accused, Santosh
Kumar Singh, Vinod Kumar Singh and Bashir Khan, died during
the pendency of trial and another accused Kallu was declared a
proclaimed offender after he went absconding.
Besides the former MLA, the other accused are Sandeep
Singh, Ashok Mishra, Raj Nath Mishra, Mabud Khan and Vishal
Singh.
PTI
