By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Feb. 3: Polygraph tests on people indicted for crimes has been on the rise in Nepal of late. Especially Nepal Police and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), while grilling them, employ it either to confirm their involvement in the crime or to exonerate them.
Started in February 6, 2014, the polygraph test on suspected criminals, and even on the police personnel, including high-ranking officers, is significantly assisting Nepal Police in further confirming their involvement in serious crimes like bribery, corruption, theft, murder, cybercrime, among others, according to the Police Headquarters.
At present, Nepal Police under technological support from forensic lab, is conducting polygraph test to verify a slew of crimes, along with the help of trained dogs and manual policing based on available facts and hints at the crime scene. The use of a dog depends on many factors, including time of the crime, safety of the scene etc., said police. "In simple terms, a polygraph is a machine that detects whether a person is lying or not while he/she under police detention and grilling," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, spokesperson at the Police Headquarters, said.
"As crime has increased, so has polygraph tests. The general public and investigation officers are increasingly trusting polygraph tests," said SSP Kunwar. However, the test cannot be done against the will of the intended person. In the last seven years, 162 people, among whom are former MPs and police personnel, have refused to be polygraphed.
The Polygraph Directive-2014 mentions that a polygraph test should be conducted in line with the request for departmental action, as well as during internal and external police investigations. Most of the police personnel have taken polygraph test in bribery cases, Kunwar added.
In the fiscal year 2070/71 B.S., the police had polygraphed 225 people -- 189 males and 36 females -- across the country. In those cases, 80 people were found to be telling lies, 134 telling truths and 11 people's view could not be analysed properly by the test.
In 2071/72 B.S, the total conducted polygraph tests reached 467. Of these, 398 were males and 70 females, and the number of liars was 188, that of speaking truth was 244 and that of non-conformity (without any result) was 36.
In 2072/73, the police polygraphed on 391 people. Of these, 332 were males and 59 females, and the number of liars was 209; that of truth speakers and non-conformity were 150 and 30 respectively. Two people declined to be tested.
In 2076/77, 859 polygraph tests were conducted, out of which 83 refused to give consent, and 488 people lied to the machine. So far, 4,227 people have been polygraphed as of the first five months of the current fiscal year. Of these, the machine could not give accurate result for the 148 tests. 62 people denied to be tested; 1,072 people were detected to be lying; 949 to be telling the truth. In addition, 130 people have confessed to committing crime.
Even if the polygraph tests give accurate results, at times the accused are acquitted when their cases reach the courts, and that happens despite the corroborating evidence, said police.