Mumbai: With the Mumbai High Court temporarily restraining Special Investigation Team (SIT) from conducting the scientific tests on six accused in the fake stamp paper scam, the pace of investigations in the case seems to have slowed down but SIT has geared up to oppose on February 24 a cluster of petitions questioning this method of probe.

The six accused who have challenged scientific tests are MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) Anil Gote, suspended officer of India Security Press Ramachandra Rama Reddy, advocate Rasheed Kulkarni, a stamp agent Manoj Mehta and suspended police officers Dilip Kamath and Dattatraya Dal.

SIT had earlier filed a reply opposing the petitions but sought time until February 24 to argue the matter.

The accused had challenged the December 15 order of a special court in Pune which ordered SIT to conduct P-300 brain-finger printing, lie detector and narco-analysis tests on them and others including prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi.

SIT contended the tests were not violative of Article 20 (3) of the Constitution as argued by the accused and did not amount to testimonial compulsion. He said these tests would only help in giving direction to the investigations so that the probe is not hampered.

On the other hand, the accused argued that these tests involved injecting chemicals in the body and they could not be forced to take them. They said the tests were violative of the Constitution, which laid down that an accused could not be forced to become a witness against himself.