Wangchuk detention: SC demands original speeches for today's hearing

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday a petition by Geetanjali Angmo, wife of Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk, challenging his detention and seeking his immediate release.

Earlier this week, the court raised concerns over discrepancies in translated transcripts of speeches linked to the jailed climate activist. On Monday, it ordered the Centre to produce by Thursday the original pen drive provided to Wangchuk at his September 2025 arrest.

The directive came during hearings on Angmo’s plea, which alleges procedural flaws in the detention. She claims her husband received no proper grounds of arrest notice, and his past speeches were distorted to imply he incited last September’s violence that killed four and injured hundreds.

Justices Aravind Kumar and PB Varale noted a “variance” between original speeches and translations submitted by authorities. “What is there in the speech, there should not be any variance. The petitioner and the state may differ on interpretation, but we have to be ad idem on the text of the speech,” the bench stated, adding that the English version ran 7-8 minutes while the 3-minute Ladakhi original urged stopping violence. “We are in an era of artificial intelligence. Precision is only 98 per cent, at least for translations.”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for Wangchuk, argued that quoted statements were absent from the authorities’ chart, calling it a “unique detention order” based on non-existent evidence. The bench countered, “We want an actual transcript of speeches. We find that what is in your (Sibal) text and what they (authorities) refer to is different.”

The court also queried Sibal on whether four video clips of the speeches were indeed shown to Wangchuk pre-arrest, as Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj confirmed. The matter resumes Thursday.

(Inputs from IANS)