Delhi court sends Sushil, Gopal Ansal to jail for 7 yrs in Uphaar tragedy

Delhi's Patiala House court has imposed 7-year imprisonment, Rs 2.25-crore fine on Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the Uphaar tragedy.The court has ordered Ansals to be taken into custody immediately, from where they'll be transferred to Tihar.

The court has also permitted to provide medication, spectacles, etc to the accused. Patiala House Court slapped a fine of Rs 2.25 crore each against Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal in a case related to evidence tampering in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy, news agency ANI reported. Besides Ansal brothers, a court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and other individuals PP Batra, Har Swaroop Panwar, Anoop Singh and Dharamvir Malhotra were booked in the evidence tampering case.

The tampering of evidence 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. Two accused – Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamvir Malhotra died during the course of the trial. The court has also imposed Rs 3-lakh fine each on the other three accused.

The Court found all accused guilty under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 109 (abetment) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Ansal brothers were sentenced to a 2-year jail term by the Supreme Court. The apex court released the Ansal brothers by taking into account the time they had done on the condition that they pay Rs 30 crore fine each. This amount will be used for building a trauma centre in Delhi.

The court accepted the arguments made by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa who appeared for the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy that Ansals and Panwar hatched a criminal conspiracy for destruction of the most vital piece of evidence collected by the CBI against them in the main case. The case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy. The fire, which claimed 59 lives and injured 100 others, had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of ‘Border’ on June 13, 1997.