Uphaar fire: Delhi court dismisses Ansals’ plea to suspend jail term in evidence tampering case

🔴 On November 8, a Delhi court had sentenced Sushil and Gopal Ansal to seven years in prison for tampering with evidence in the case.

A Delhi court has dismissed a plea seeking the suspension of a seven-year jail sentence awarded to real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal, who were convicted for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of Uphaar cinema fire.

Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil dismissed the plea filed by Ansals and the other accused following arguments by the prosecution, which told the court that suspending the seven-year jail term will “trigger the mental trauma and agony of the victims”.

Additional Public Prosecutor A T Ansari told the court that the punishment provided a solace to the victims of the tragedy and reinforced their faith in the justice delivery system, that too after 24 years.

“The manner in which the most crucial documents capable of establishing the involvement of Ansals in the case were handpicked from the court record – comprising more than 15,000 pages – relevant portions of which were torn, obliterated and defaced by sprinkling ink on them, was not a simple air strike but a guided missile attack to hit the target,” Ansari told the court.

On November 8, a Delhi court had sentenced Sushil and Gopal Ansal to seven years in prison for tampering with evidence in the case.

The court rejected their plea for a lenient sentence by stating that “misplaced sympathy or unwarranted leniency will send a wrong signal to the public” and an “inadequate sentence would do more harm to the public confidence in the efficacy of law as society could not long endure such assaults on the justice system.”

The case is related to tampering with the evidence of the 1997 fire tragedy in which 59 lives were lost. The Ansal brothers were convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had, however, released them on the period already undergone in jail on the condition that they paid Rs 30 crore fine each to be used for building a trauma centre in the national capital.

Along with the Ansal brothers, the court also held two of their employees, P P Batra, Anoop Singh and a former court staff, Dinesh Chand Sharma, guilty. The case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy.

The tampering was detected for the first time on July 20, 2002 and a departmental inquiry was initiated against Dinesh Chand Sharma. He was suspended and terminated from service on June 25, 2004.

The court had convicted them under IPC sections 201 (tampering of evidence), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) on October 8.

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