Judge rules out factual errors in translated version of chargesheet

PATHANKOT: District and sessions judge Dr Tejwinder Singh, hearing the Kathua rape and murder case, on Thursday, overruled the claim of one of the defence counsel that mistakes had occurred during the conversion of the case from Urdu into English and Hindi. The judge contended that the mistakes were not factual and were only typographical errors. He added that whatever mistakes were there in the chargesheet, after it was translated into English from Urdu, were bona fide errors.

Counsel of one of the accused, AK Sawhney, had on Wednesday contended that “the matter was extremely serious in nature.” The judge finally settled down the arguments by saying that there was nothing seriously amiss in the translated version.

Special public prosecutor SS Basra claimed that the crime branch of the J&K police, which had taken the help of one Daulat Khan, languages expert, to translate the case in both the languages, had taken the consent of both the prosecution and defence lawyers after which the chargesheet was translated.

‘THREAT TO WITNESS’

Meanwhile, SSP (crime) Ramesh Kumar Jalla on Thursday filed an application with the judge that one of the prosecution witnesses, head constable Sham Lal has received a call on his phone in which the caller allegedly threatened him of dire consequences, if he deposes in the court. The matter was taken into consideration by the court.

MEETINGS OF ACCUSED WITH KIN

On the request of one of the defence counsel seeking a meeting of the kin and the accused in jail, the judge ordered the Kathua jail superintendent Mushtaq to facilitate meetings between the accused and their relatives between 9 am to 9.30 am.