Bhubaneswar: The prime accused and dismissed Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Gopal Das, arrested for shooting Health Minister Naba Das dead on January 29, is likely to be shifted to Choudwar Circle Jail due to security reasons.
According to sources, Jail DG has approved the proposal to shift him out of Jharsuguda sub-jail, where he has been lodged after returning to Odisha following polygraph and narco-analysis tests at the Directorate of Forensic Sciences at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on Friday and Saturday. The jail authorities will now appeal to the Jharsuguda Court to allow the transfer.
With his third phase remand ending on Monday, Gopal will be produced before the JMFC court in Jharsuguda, where the Crime Branch will also hand over the Narco test report in a sealed envelope along with the video recording of the process.
Meanwhile, the SI of Jharsuguda police has told the investigators that had he not awakened Gopal, who was in deep sleep and snoring at his Gandhi Chhak police outpost barely an hour before the firing incident, the minister could have been alive.
The SI further said that Gopal, who was assigned to regulate traffic near the programme venue, did not look perturbed or tense while leaving for his duty.
According to the lie-detection and narco-analysis tests, Gopal had claimed he skipped his medicines, which were subscribed to treat his bipolar disorder, for over two months to build up his anger against Naba, whom he considered to be highly corrupt.
