Cop accused of killing Odisha min not mentally ill: Med report

BHUBANESWAR: The cop accused of killing Odisha minister Naba Kishore Das is not mentally ill, a court in Jharsuguda district said, quoting a report of the medical board that examined him.
Rejecting a plea of the crime branch for the mental evaluation of accused Gopal Dasat the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, the court of the additional district judge made public the observation of the medical board that submitted its report on February 5.
“The person is conscious, alert, cooperative and communicative. He is well groomed with eye-to-eye contact. Rapport is established. Mood and affect—appropriate to the situation,” the medical board said in its report.
The court said in its March 3 observation that nowhere in the medical board’s report the accused was found to be suffering from mental illness. “. . . the prayer made by the IO (investigating officer) for further psychological examination of the accused would be redundant.
However, for the said examination, accused cannot be shifted to NIMHANS,” the court said. The medical report was shot in the arm for the BJP, which has been claiming that the state was falsely trying to prove that the accused was mentally disabled to conceal a larger conspiracy involved in the murder.
Rejecting the allegation, BJD MLA SB Behera said, “The state government’s medical board has given the report. It proves the transparency in the investigation. ” Meanwhile, Congress legislative party leader Narasingha Mishra claimed there was personal enmity behind the January 29 murder of the state minister.