CHANDIGARH: A day after Jammu and Kashmir Police had claimed a threat to witnesses in the Kathua rape and murder case, lawyers of the accused said in court on Friday that a vicious campaign was being run against them in Kashmir and there was a threat to their lives too.The defence counsels said some groups had made public their names, advocate licence number and other personal details on social media. A joint application on behalf of all defence counsels was submitted to the court of Pathankot sessions judge Tejwinder Singh by advocate A K Sawhney.Submitting that the life of all defence counsels was under threat from some elements from Kashmir valley, the defence lawyers requested the court to a judicial note of the issue. In their application, the counsels did not specifically demanded any security cover.Jammu SSP (crime) Ramesh Kumar Jalla’s application alleging threat to witnesses was also discussed in court, but the judge did not pass any order. On the issue of mistakes in the translated version of the court record, the judge asked the prosecution agency to rectify errors, as they were different from the original record prepared in Urdu language.Advocate Vinod Kumar Mahajan, one of the counsel for the accused, said the statement of the second witness related to the case was recorded on Friday. “Now the case will be heard on July 2, when the court will reopen after summer vacation,” he said.On May 7, the Supreme Court shifted the trial of the case to Pathankot, around 26km from Kathua. The step was taken as there were protests over the case in Jammu and it had triggered a political crisis in the state over the investigation report of Jammu and Kashmir Police.The trial began in Pathankot on May 31. The court has already framed charges of rape and murder against seven of the eight accused in this case.As per the chargesheet of Jammu and Kashmir Police, an eight-year-old girl from a minority nomadic community was kidnapped on January 10, 2018, and allegedly raped in captivity in a village temple in Kathua district . She was later killed by the accused.

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