Ansal brothers sentenced to 7 years in jail over Uphaar fire
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Monday awarded 7-year jail terms to real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of Uphaar cinema fire which had claimed 59 lives.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma also imposed a fine of ₹2.25 crore each on the Ansals.
The court also awarded 7-year-jail term each to former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others -- P P Batra and Anoop Singh and a fine of ₹3 lakh each on the them.
“I think it is very hard to reach out to this decision given the complexities involved. After some thinking over some nights and nights, I have come to this conclusion that they deserve punishment,” Sharma said while pronouncing the order.
The convicts, out on bail, were taken into the custody after the order was pronounced.
The case is related to tampering with the evidence in the main fire tragedy case in which the Ansals were convicted and sentenced to 2-year jail term by the Supreme Court.
The apex court however released them taking into account the prison time they had done on the condition that they pay ₹30 crore fine each, to be used for building a trauma centre in the national capital.
The fire had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of the Hindi film ‘Border’ on June 13, 1997, claiming 59 lives.
On October 8, while convicting the accused in the tampering case, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court said, “The manner in which they subjected the process of law to desecration is no less defiling the justice administration system.”
It held that their “high handedness” for “securing benefit in the trial sans documents by any means shows the scant regard which they have for the justice delivery system”.
“The brazen attitude of the accused is reflective from their conduct as, after the destruction of evidence, they vehemently opposed the prosecution plea for adducing secondary evidence,” the court said.
Out of seven accused, two accused Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamvir Malhotra died during the course of the trial of the case.
The district court earlier had ordered framing of charges against seven accused of abetment of offence, causing disappearance of evidence, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, and criminal conspiracy.
Sushil and Gopal Ansal had earlier approached the High Court challenging the charges framed against them for tampering with evidence.
Representing AVUT, Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa had submitted before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma that the case revealed the arrogance of rich people, who think themselves out of the reach of law and can get relief despite committing serious offences. He has demanded maximum punishment for the convicts.
He also had submitted that businessman Ansals brothers had misused the liberty, hatched a conspiracy with court staff, and tampered with the evidence.
He added that the accused in this case, primarily the Ansal brothers, misused the liberty granted to them in the main Uphaar case and tampered with the evidence after hatching a criminal conspiracy with the court staff.
Senior Advocate Pramod Kr Dubey and Advocate Tanveer Ahmad Mir appeared for the Ansal brothers in the matter.
Final arguments lasted for consecutive 40 days in the matter. The prosecution was represented by AT Ansari Public Prosecutor.
The members of the Association are either those who were injured in the fire or are relatives of those who were injured or killed in the fire.