Hindi records given by police not legible, claim December 16 rape convicts

Two of the four death row convicts in the December 16 gang rape case on Monday claimed in the Delhi High Court (HC) that the Hindi translation of their judgment and other trial records given by the police were not legible and sought time to approach the Supreme Court (SC) on the issue.

Two of the four death row convicts in the December 16 gang rape case on Monday claimed in the Delhi High Court (HC) that the Hindi translation of their judgment and other trial records given by the police were not legible and sought time to approach the Supreme Court (SC) on the issue.

A bench of Justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani gave a week’s time to convicts Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh to approach the apex court.

The prosecution had supplied Hindi translations to Gupta and Singh on the SC’s direction in November after their request had been denied by the HC.

Special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan, appearing for the Delhi Police, however, opposed the defence’s move saying, “as per the HC rule itself, death references should be heard on a day-to-day basis in the interest of the convicts”. He added the defence counsel was just trying to stall the proceedings.

However, the defending advocate M L Sharma insisted the police had not provided a proper translation. “The translation is done through Google. Therefore, the contents are not readable,” Sharma said.