A Delhi court on Monday allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to conduct a polygraph test on alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Showkat Ahmed Bhat in the Udhampur terror attack case last month.
It had last month allowed NIA to put another alleged LeT terrorist, Mohammad Naved, through the lie detector test as well. Villagers in Udhampur in Jammu & Kashmir had caught Naved last month after he and his accomplice had attacked a BSF convoy in which two jawans were killed and eight injured. The other terrorist had been killed in the counter-attack by the BSF.
The NIA had arrested Bhat on September 1 in connection with the case. It brought him here on Sunday for a ‘scientific analysis’ of his statements.
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Producing him before District Judge Amar Nath in the Patiala House courts, the investigating agency said that a polygraph test was required to be conducted on him to unearth the larger conspiracy of the banned terror outfit.
Allowing the NIA plea, the court said that the accused would be put through the test at the Capital’s Lodhi Road CFSL.
Seeking permission for the test, the probe agency submitted that Bhat had been giving inconsistent statements during his interrogation which hampered the probe.
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It informed the court that Bhat had given his consent to undergo the test. The investigating agency further said that during the questioning of Mohammad Naved, certain facts regarding the larger conspiracy behind the terror attack in Udhampur had come to light. It included the entire network of conspirators, supporters, financers, facilitators and handlers of Naved, the agency further stated.
Bhat had facilitated Naved and three other alleged terrorists by transporting them from near the Indo-Pak border to the place of their hideout in Pulwama district in J&K, the probe agency said in its plea for permission to conduct the test.
Seeking permission for the test, the probe agency submitted that Bhat had been giving inconsistent statements during his interrogation, which hampered the probe