Arrested for alleged kidnap and murder of their two former associates, mafia don Sushant Dhalsamant and his younger brother Sushil told court on Saturday that they are not willing to undergo polygraph test as desired by the investigating police officer (IO).
The IO had moved the court seeking a polygraph test stating that the accused persons were lying and not disclosing the facts of the case during the custodial interrogation. But the court had earlier ordered that polygraph test cannot be conducted by the prosecution without the consent of the accused.
“My clients have declined to undergo polygraph test when they were produced in the residential court of SDJM here on the day after the end of their two-phased 12-day police remand,” informed accused persons’ lawyer Soura Chandra Mohapatra, justifying the stand taken by the brothers.
“Under the cannons of criminal jurisprudence, a person is presumed to be innocent (till proved otherwise) and it is the responsibility of the prosecution to establish his guilt,” Mohapatra said, adding that a person accused of an offence need not make any statement against his will and he cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself as provided in Article 20 (3) of the Constitution. Arrested on January 29, the brothers were on the day sent back to the Choudwar jail on judicial custody. Sources, however, said the police may seek further remands of the brothers after re-arresting them in subsequent cases registered against them.