SAMBALPUR: Police on Friday conducted polygraph test on the driver of the tipper truck involved in the accident that killed two BJP leaders near Katapali overbridge in Burla here on January 5.
Burla sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Ambit Kumar Mohanty said the accused driver was brought on a two-day remand on Thursday. His polygraph test was conducted at the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL), Bhubaneswar. He will be sent back to judicial custody on Saturday.
The driver, identified as Prasanna Kumar Jenamani, was arrested a few hours after the fatal mishap. After preliminary investigation, he was produced in court. On January 7, police brought him on a three-day remand for questioning.
While police failed to ascertain the driver’s motive behind ramming his fly ash-laden truck into the BJD leaders’ car multiple times, Northern range IG Himanshu Lal had informed that the accused will be brought on remand again for polygraph and psychiatric tests.
After the incident, family members of the BJP leaders had alleged foul play and termed the accident as murder. Confirming their suspicion, police had ascertained that the crash was intentional after scanning the CCTV footage collected from near the accident spot.
Subsequently, a case of murder was registered under relevant sections of the BNS. Later, the driver also confessed to have rammed his truck into the car. However, police are yet to make any breakthrough in the case even after a month.
SDPO Mohanty said further investigation is underway.
On the night of January 5, BJP mandal president Debendra Nayak and former sarpanch Muralidhar Chhuria suffered critical injuries after a fly-ash-laden tipper truck rammed their car, causing it to plunge off the bridge. The two leaders succumbed while being taken to hospital. Two other occupants of the car, Suresh Chhanda and Ram Narayan Panda, sustained injuries in the accident.