Unnao rape case: Truck driver, cleaner brought back without undergoing narco test

Driver Ashish Pal and cleaner Mohan, accused of murder, were flown back to Uttar Pradesh by a CBI team on Tuesday night, sources said. (Representational Image)

A narco test on the driver and cleaner of a truck involved in an accident that left the Unnao rape victim and her lawyer injured, and two of her family members dead, could not be conducted at the Gandhinagar Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) as the remand period of the two accused got expired.

Driver Ashish Pal and cleaner Mohan, accused of murder, were flown back to Uttar Pradesh by a CBI team on Tuesday night, sources said. The two were brought to Gandhinagar on Sunday afternoon after the Supreme Court awarded a transit remand to the CBI to conduct various tests on the accused. They underwent a brain finger-printing test on Monday and Tuesday. “There was no time to conduct the narco test on them as their remand was to end by Wednesday 4 pm. Therefore, the CBI team took them back to UP, and they might again seek a transit remand,” said an official at the Directorate of FSL in Gandhinagar.

“In the brain fingerprinting test, the suspect is asked to wear a cap and we show them various visuals, audio and text related to a case in order to know if they had any knowledge or participated in a certain act,” an FSL official said, adding, “the suspect is not asked any questions but is shown various audio-visuals to determine if any brain activity happens.”

On July 28, a speeding truck collided head-on with a car in which the rape victim, her lawyer and two aunts were travelling to Rae Bareli. While the victim’s two aunts were killed in the accident, she and her lawyer were critically injured, and are currently admitted at AIIMS in New Delhi.