Narco analysis test facility to start after COVID-19 situation under control: Delhi government to HC

NEW DELHI: The AAP government has informed the Delhi High Court that the process to start a Narco analysis test facility in the city is underway and it will commence after the pandemic situation comes under control. 

The Delhi government told the HC that the facility has been set up at Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital and it could not commence operations due to the pandemic.According to lawyers, this would be the first such facility to be established in Delhi. 

“So far as the setting up of the Narco Analysis Test facility at Delhi is concerned, the status report discloses that the process to start the Narco Analysis examination is underway and the examination shall be conducted at Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Rohini, as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic situation comes under control,” the HC bench said.

The high court had earlier asked the Delhi government to file a status report disclosing as to whether any steps have been taken to set up the facility in Delhi, considering the fact that a large number of such tests are required to be conducted in respect of cases registered. 

​The issue cropped up while the court was hearing a plea by a father who has been running around in search of his 19-yearold son who is missing since September 17, 2018.

Advocate Siddharth Yadav, appearing for petitioner Tejbir Singh, said the man has been facing the tyranny of the authorities as he has been made to run from pillar to post but to no avail. The petition said the missing boy wanted to become a wrestler and his father had told the police that he suspected the owner of the gymnasium and four others behind the disappearance of his son but the officials have not taken any action after which he approached the court.

“All of these persons have not even been put to Narco tests. It seems that the concerned police officials are trying to protect the persons accused by the petitioner regarding the missing of his son,” it said. 

The police authorities have told the high court that the test has been done on two suspects related to the case and that the remaining three suspects are yet to be subjected to Narco analysis test as the process could not be completed at Ahmedabad on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.