Uphaar Fire Tragedy Verdict: A Setback To The Ansal Brothers
Uphaar Fire Tragedy Verdict: A setback to the Ansal brothers from the Delhi High Court, the petition seeking suspension of the sentence dismissed.
Uphaar Cinema Case Delhi High Court has given an important decision.
The Ansal brothers, who have sought relief on the lower court’s decision in the case of tampering with the evidence related to the Uphaar fire incident on the basis of age, have received a setback from HC.
A bench of Justice Subramaniam Prasad on Wednesday dismissed the appeals filed by Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal seeking suspension of the sentence.
On January 27, the bench had reserved its decision after hearing the arguments of all the parties.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Ansal brothers, had argued that there is no such thing as presumption of innocence after conviction, but no system treats first conviction as final.
He had said that the presence of Section 389 of the Indian Penal Code Procedure means that there is no presumption of continuous imprisonment during the pendency of the appeal.
Singhvi had requested the court to take a holistic approach keeping in view the individual liberty, the reality of Corona, and the respective age of the petitioners.
At the same time, earlier the prosecution had argued that Ansal Bhai himself was responsible for the delay in the trial due to his involvement in tampering of evidence and now he cannot seek suspension of the jail term.
The challenge petition was also rejected by the sessions court.
In December, the sessions court at Patiala House had dismissed a petition challenging the seven-year sentence after being convicted by a magistrate court.
He was also refused bail. Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal have demanded suspension of sentence citing age.
Uphaar Fire Tragedy Verdict: Ansal brothers were convicted by the magistrate court.
Patiala House Court Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma had sentenced the Ansal brothers to seven years each.
While imposing a fine of Rs 2.25-2.25 crore in the case of tampering with evidence related to the Uphaar fire incident of 1997.
Apart from this, the court had also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh each on the convict Dinesh Chand Sharma and two other convicts PP Batra and Anoop Singh, who were the employees of the court in the case.
Two of the accused in the case, Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamveer Malhotra, died during the trial.
Details of the case.
The case of tampering of evidence came to light for the first time on 20 July 2002 when a departmental inquiry was initiated against Dinesh Chand Sharma.
Dinesh was first suspended and then dismissed from services on 25 June 2004.
The prosecution said that after the dismissal, the Ansal brothers had also helped Sharma in getting employment on a monthly salary of Rs 15,000.
Police had admitted a serious matter.
In this case, by filing the charge sheet, the Delhi Police had admitted that tampering of evidence by the Ansal brothers has undermined the confidence of the common man in the criminal justice system.
It was the most sensitive matter in the city at that time and tampering of documents in such a case could not be taken lightly.
Police had said in the charge sheet that the tampered with documents included a police memo detailing the recovery immediately after the incident.
Delhi Fire Service records relating to the repair of transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of meetings of the managing director, and four checks.
Ansal brothers were convicted in the main case.
A fire broke out during the screening of the film Border at Uphaar cinema, killing 59 people. Sushil and Gopal Ansal were convicted in this case.
The Supreme Court had sentenced him to two years but acquitted him on the condition of paying a fine of Rs 30 crore each, taking into account his age and time spent in jail.
During the hearing of the case, two accused Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamveer Malhotra had died.
