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A Delhi court has sought response from the Centre and Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) on appeals challenging 7-year jail terms awarded to real estate tycoons Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of Uphaar cinema fire, which had claimed 59 lives.
Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil on Wednesday issued a notice on the plea filed by the Ansal brothers challenging their conviction and the jail term by a magisterial court in Delhi on Monday, according to a PTI report.
The judge also sought a report from the medical superintendent of Tihar jail after senior advocate PK Dubey, appearing for Gopal Ansal, submitted that his client was suffering from certain ailments.
During the hearing, the accused objected to the locus of AVUT.
The sessions court also directed the accused to serve the copy of the appeal to the association after its counsel, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa opposed their submission.
A magisterial court on 8 October had also imposed a fine of ₹2.25 crore each on the Ansals.
The court had 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 ₹three lakh each on the them.
Tampering with evidence in the fire tragedy case
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 SC 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.
As per the charge sheet, the documents tampered with included a police memo giving details of recoveries immediately after the incident, Delhi Fire Service records pertaining to repair of transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of Managing Director's meetings, and four cheques.
Out of the six sets of documents, a cheque of ₹50 lakh, issued by Sushil Ansal to self, and minutes of the MD's meetings, proved beyond doubt that the two brothers were handling the day-to-day affairs of the theatre at the relevant time, the charge sheet had said.
It said the Ansals had taken the defence in the main case that they had no involvement in the day-to-day functioning.
The tampering was detected for the first time on July 20, 2002, and a departmental enquiry was initiated against Dinesh Chand Sharma. He was suspended and terminated from services on June 25, 2004.
The fire had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of the Hindi film 'Border' on June 13, 1997, claiming 59 lives.
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