A local court in Kolhapur on Friday rejected the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) request to conduct a brain mapping test on Sameer Gaikwad, an activist of the right-wing outfit Sanatan Sanstha and prime suspect in the murder of Communist leader Govind Pansare.
However, the court extended Gaikwad’s judicial custody to October 23.
Earlier in the day, Gaikwad was produced in the court where Junior Magistrate First Class (JMFC) R. D. Dange asked the accused whether he agreed to consent to a brain-mapping test, to which Gaikwad replied in the negative, citing the pretext that he was “not in a proper state of mind”.
“The police, during its 12-day custody of Gaikwad ought to have made efforts to obtain a court order for his brain-mapping test at that early stage of their interrogation. Now, with a battery of pro-Sanatan lawyers defending Gaikwad, that initiative is lost,” said advocate Amit Shinde, one of the lawyers in the prosecution, speaking to The Hindu .
The government counsel, who argued against Gaikwad has pleaded before the court that the accused had confessed to killing Pansare (who was shot outside his Kolhapur home on February 16) twice while talking over phone, but was refusing to furnish any information or cooperate with the SIT.
Further, a psychological evaluation test report given by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) observed that Gaikwad had a “duplicitous personality.”
On the contrary, Gaikwad’s lawyers have demanded that the police disclose details of 12-day grilling of the accused. They have repeatedly alleged that police authorities were furnishing false information before the court and that the permission for brain-mapping on Gaikwad violated his fundamental rights.
