Uphaar fire: Delhi HC asks Ansals, others to file submissions in evidence tampering case

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked real estate tycoons Sushil and Gopal Ansal to file written submissions in their challenge to conviction for allegedly tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire case.

The court also asked the counsel for the state to prepare a convenience compilation of documents on behalf of all the parties and place it before the court in two weeks.

Ansals and the other convicts have been directed by the court to file written submissions within a week and to commence their arguments on the next date of hearing.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav listed the matter for hearing on October 15 and made it clear that no adjournment will be granted.

The court was hearing pleas by Ansal brothers challenging their punishment, apart from the pleas of the Delhi Police and Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) for enhancement of the punishment.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, representing the prosecution, had earlier said the first appellate court, while upholding the conviction by a magisterial court, reduced the sentence imposed on the accused persons on “perverse reasoning”.

AVUT, represented by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, has said in its petition that the district judge failed to consider that the offence of tampering was extremely serious in nature as it affected the entire criminal justice system.

The case relates to tampering with the evidence in the main fire tragedy case in which the Ansals were convicted and sentenced to a two-year jail term by the Supreme Court.

The magisterial court on November 8, 2021, awarded seven-year jail terms to the real estate barons after finding them guilty.

The sessions court, however, modified the magisterial court’s order on July 19, 2022, and ordered the release of Sushil and Gopal Ansal, former court staff Dinesh Chandra Sharma and Ansal’s then employee P P Batra from the jail term they had already undergone since November 8, 2021

It, however, upheld the fine of Rs 2.25 crore each imposed by the magisterial court on the Ansals and Rs 3 lakh each on the other two.

Pleas of Sharma and Batra against the punishment are also pending for hearing.

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The chargesheet alleged that the tampered documents include a police memo with details of recoveries immediately after the incident, Delhi Fire Service records about the repair of the transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of managing director’s meetings, and four cheques.

The fire had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of the Hindi film ‘Border’ on June 13, 1997, claiming 59 lives.