A Delhi court has convicted real estate barons Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal for tampering with crucial evidence in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case.
The Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma also held a former court staff Dinesh Chandra Sharma and two of the employees of Ansal Properties and Industries – P.P. Batra and Anoop Singh – guilty for destructing crucial documents, which were capable of proving their complicity in the case and thereby, attacking on the very purity and sanctity of the justice system.
The accused were convicted for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust by public servant and tampering of evidence.
The court said, “A devastating fire took place in Uphaar cinema on June 13, 1997, where several human lives became victims and the accused of the said crime – Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal and H.S. Panwar (since deceased) in conspiracy with other accused, while facing trial in the case, destructed critical documents, which were capable of proving their complicity in the said crime, making this time the justice dispensation system as victim. They tampered/obliterated/torn/defaced some hand-picked documents of the said case through a meticulous planning, in order to escape punishment by scuttling the trial process and as such, fiddled with our judicial system with great impunity.
“The manner in which the process of law was subjected to desecration by the accused is no less than defiling the justice administration system. The high-handedness of the accused for securing benefit in the trial sans documents by any means demonstrates the scant regard which they have for the justice delivery system, which is the bedrock of our democracy… Their misconception that they will get away with their nefarious design from punishment has been exposed to the world at large,” it added.
On June 13, 1997, a devastating fire occurred at Uphaar cinema building located at Delhi’s Green Park area, claiming 59 lives and injuring several hundreds of people.
The instant case was filed on the basis of an FIR lodged upon the complaint made by the General Secretary of the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), in pursuance with the direction passed by the Delhi High Court on a plea moved by the AVUT Chairperson, alleging tempering with the evidence of the 1997 Uphaar tragedy case in which the Ansal brothers were convicted and sentenced to two-year jail term by the Apex Court. However, in 2015, the top court of the country released them, taking into account the prison time they had already served, while directing them to pay Rs 30 crore fine each. Two other accused in the main case, H.S. Panwar and Dharamvir Malhotra, died during the course of trial.
Read the order here:
Judgment-DC-Sharma