1984 anti-Sikh riots: Verma alleges bias by FSL during polygraph test

Controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, today moved a city court accusing a forensic lab of defending Congress leader Jagdish Tytler during his lie-detector test.

Verma, who has been undergoing the polygraph test at the government-run forensic science laboratory in Rohini here, alleged in his application before a Karkardooma court that officials of the FSL were holding a “mini trial” and acting in an “unfair and biased” manner.

“Senior Scientific Officer...was acting in a very biased manner and trying to defend the accused person of the present case, which is a matter of concern,” Verma alleged in his application.

He claimed that two officers, in separate rounds of questioning and after asking all lawyers to leave the room on October 24, put personal questions such as “Why do people like you marry twice? Why are you after Tytler? I am not able to understand.”

“The FSL, Rohini is not conducting the procedure for the lie detection test in a fair and impartial manner, rather the conduct and actions of FSL Rohini are extremely questionable,” the plea alleged.

Verma has sought that a detailed standard operating procedure for conducting polygraph test be filed by the FSL, Rohini in the court to bring on record complete transparency.

He also sought a status report of the polygraph test conducted on October 24 be filed by the lab before the court.

While Tytler, who has been given clean chit thrice by the CBI, has refused to undergo the lie detector test, Verma had given conditional consent to undergo the test if provided with round-the-clock security claiming threat to his life.

The court had on the last date put up the matter for hearing on October 30 when the CBI will also provide a status report on the test.

The court had on August 2 asked the CBI to conduct lie detection test on Verma after the CBI’s investigating officer (IO) informed it about the places where such facilities were available like FSL, Rohini, and said requisite provisions were not available at the AIIMS or the Safdarjung Hospital here.

The case pertains to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Tytler, who has denied any role in the riots, was thrice given a clean chit by the CBI in the case, but the agency was directed by the court to further investigate the matter. The victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI’s closure reports in the case.

The court had on December 2015 directed the CBI to further investigate the matter and decided to monitor it every two months to ensure no aspect was left uninvestigated.

The agency had reinvestigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report. The CBI has filed three closure reports in the case.

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