Naugachia, July 27: Government Railway Police (GRP) are mulling lie detection (polygraph) tests on those picked up on the basis of suspicion in the Assam youth murder case.

The body of 25-year-old Pritam Bhattacharjee was found on July 15 near the railway track at Kataria station in Naugachia.

Inspector-general of police (rail), Vinay Kumar today said the police were working round-the-clock to crack the case. “We are trying our level best to solve the case. We hope to nab the culprits soon. We are thinking of polygraph tests on the people we have picked up for questioning,” Kumar said.

He added that the GRP was likely to conduct the polygraph test on the people so far interrogated in connection with the case. Earlier, an arrested pickpocket, Ram Krishna Singh, who had confessed to his involvement in the case and had disclosed the names of seven other people who were part of the crime, was sent to Naugachia jail on the charge of a pickpocketing case related to another train passenger.

“We had no other option because the pickpocket’s version did not match the circumstantial evidence of the Pritam murder case. Ram Krishna was lying but we didn’t have the option to confirm his statement,” a senior GRP officer and also a member of an investigation team said.

“Ram Krishna claimed his involvement in the case. But we interrogated many people, including hardcore pickpockets, but none of them admitted their involvement in the case. If we had the facility of a lie detection test, we would have been able to solve the mystery much earlier,” the officer added.

On the other hand, another team probing the incident conducted raids in Chapar village today.

A sniffer dog that accompanied the investigating team ran towards a makeshift hut at Chapar village, 2km from the site where the body was found, yesterday. The hut was abandoned and the dog came back after loitering around the place for a while.

The station house officer of Rangra, K.P. Singh, under whose jurisdiction Chapar is, was asked to prepare a list of criminals based in the village. “Chapar is infamous for goons. Earlier, many murder cases were reported from the village. We are keeping a close watch on every development at the village,” said a GRP officer.

Pritam’s family members, on the other hand, today said they came to know about the recovery of a bag said to be of Pritam’s from the media.

Pritam’s uncle Ram Mohan Bhattacharjee told The Telegraph over phone from Silchar that not a single family member was contacted by the GRP or the Naugachia police after the bag was found.

“How can the police claim that the bag belonged to Pritam? They (cops) should verify it from us first,” he said, adding that without seeing the items in the bag, it was not possible for the family to confirm it.