Srinagar, May 26: Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar Saturday granted one more Week’s time to police to translate the charge sheet and appended documents into English in the case of Jaleel Andrabi, noted lawyer and human rights activist who was killed 17 years ago after he was picked up from home.      
 As soon as the matter came up for hearing today, deputy director prosecution, Zulfikar Hussain argued that he was in receipt of the court’s latest order copy on Friday only and as such requires time to get the documents translated into English. 
 Police on May 19 had submitted before the court a legible copy of original challan lodged against accused Major Avtar Singh in connection with the murder of Jaleel Andrabi. 
 Following the submission of the legible Chargesheet in Urdu, Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar, Rajeev Gupta had asked the police to translate the chargesheet and other accompany documents into English.
 The court had asked to prepare error free legible copies of documents after Ministry of external Affairs Government of India had sent back the record pertaining to extradition of Major Avtar Singh who is accused of killing Andrabi and is currently in California. 
 The court had authorized deputy director prosecution, Zulfkar Hussain  to get the documents translated into English within a week which it would authenticate later.
 The CJM had earlier asked the IGP Kashmir Range to prepare  translated English version of the documents which would be subsequently authenticated by it after verifying the contents of the original charge sheet and other documents.
  Pertinently, Major Avtar Singh left India after allegedly murdering Andrabi in March 1996. He went to America via Canada. He was arrested by police in California in February last year following a complaint of domestic violence by his wife. Major Avtar Singh served with Army’s 35 Rashtriya Rifles for many years.
 A murder case was registered against Major Avtar Singh and others after the victim’s family pursued the matter in the High Court and alleged that the Government was covering up the murder. The case is, however, pending trial before the court of CJM Srinagar for over a decade. The Court has directed extradition of the accused Major from USA.
 While in today’s proceeding, the complainant was represented by the counsel, Mir Hafeezullah, the court has posted the case for next hearing on June 6, 2012.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 IST