A local court in Vadodara on Friday rejected the Crime Investigation Department’s (CID) plea for extension of remand of the six policemen, who are accused in an alleged case of custodial death in Fatehgunj police station in December 2019. The six policemen have been sent to judicial custody even as the investigators are still in the dark about the disposal of the body of the victim, Nisar Shaikh (65), after the alleged crime was committed. The CID, officials said that they would now explore the options of a narco test as well as lie detector test of the accused with permissions from the court. On Friday, as the 10-day police remand of the accused ended, the CID produced them in court and sought an extension of remand for four days. The CID has already conducted a reconstruction of the events of December 10, 2019, inside the Fatehgunj police station as well as conducted searches on the premises where the six accused lived in Vadodara during their duty here. However, Superintendent of Police, CID, Girish Pandya said that the accused remained "uncooperative" during the investigations and maintained that the said victim was let off after questioning in a case of attempted theft in the TP13 area of the city, from where one of the accused had followed him to Fulwadi in Fatehgunj and apprehended him. When asked about the hurdle the probe has hit with the investigators yet to recover the body of the deceased to establish conclusively that it is indeed a crime of custodial killing, Pandya said, "We will discuss with the government pleader and senior police officials regarding the next step in this case. We will move an application in the court seeking permission for psychological tests as well as narco analysis next week." CID officials said that investigations have revealed that the accused used three vehicles to dispose of the body, including the car belonging to a head constable of the Fatehgunj police station, which was already seized by the Vadodara police in July this year.
