Odisha minister’s murder: Court rejects Crime Branch plea for further mental analysis of accused

The Crime Branch, which is probing the high-profile murder case, had moved the Jharsuguda district court after the local Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court had rejected a similar request.

Gopal Das’s lawyer Harishankar Agarwal said the court rejected the Crime Branch petition in accordance with the provision under Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Agarwal said it’s more than 15 days since the accused has been produced before the JMFC court. Gopal Das had already been remanded in police custody for 13 days in three phases. Sending the accused to police custody (for taking to NIMHANS) equals to ‘police remand’, hence the plea was rejected, Agarwal said.

The ASI gunned down the minister at Brajrajnagar on January 29 while the latter was going to attend an official programme.

In a statement, the Crime Branch on February 20 stated that the accused had a prolonged history of mental illness.

The agency had constituted a special medical board consisting of psychiatric experts which opined that there is a need to conduct a detailed examination of the accused to come to a definite conclusion about his mental health.

Besides the forensic psychological assessment of the accused, the Crime Branch has conducted the Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) test with the help of experts from CFSL, New Delhi. Besides, the accused was also taken to Gandhinagar in Gujarat for conducting polygraph and narco analysis tests.