NEW DELHI: A court on Tuesday issued Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) against accused Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal for failing to appear before it in a case of alleged tampering of evidence in the Uphaar tragedy.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat issued the warrants against the real estate barons.
The court is hearing a case related to the tampering of records after Neelam Krishnamoorthy sought compliance with the Delhi High Court order directing hearing of the matter thrice a week. Krishnamoorthy, President of the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy, is fighting the legal battle on behalf of the victims for the last 20 years.
On January 31, 2003, a trial court ordered an inquiry after some documents went missing from the court’s record room. After an inquiry, a court employee was dismissed from service. The case is related to the tampering of a judicial file pertaining to a letter written by Ansal Properties Industries Ltd vice-president V K Nagpal to the Delhi Fire Services. An FIR was registered in this regard.
In May last year, the high court had upheld a trial court order framing charges of tampering of evidence against Ansals. A court had ordered framing of charges against seven accused for abatement of offence, causing disappearance of evidence, criminal breach of trust by public servant and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.
Theatre owners Gopal Ansal and his brother Sushil Ansal, Anoop Singh, Prem Prakash Batra, Harswaroop Panwar, Dharamveer Malhotra and Dinesh Chandra Sharma were accused of tampering with evidence in the case, pending since 2006.
Association Working for a noble cause
Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy’s (AVUT) endeavors have ensured that due attention is given to safety norms in public spaces, specially cinema halls and multiplexes with owners and Government authorities ensuring strict compliance of fire safety rules.