NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to real estate barons--Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal-- and other accused on a revision petition moved by the Delhi Police against the trial court's decision which reduced their sentence from seven years to eight months for allegedly tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar cinema tragedy fire case which claimed 59 lives.
The trial court had upheld the conviction of the accused in the Uphaar Tragedy Destruction of Evidence case but said that due to the advanced age of the Ansals, it would release them on the sentence already undergone which was eight months and 12 days.
The court also took note of the fact that other accused persons were employees or subordinates of them.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani also sought a response from the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT). Granting four weeks' time for all the respondents to file their replies, the court listed the matter for the next hearing on April 13.
On November 8, 2021, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Court, Pankaj Sharma, sentenced Ansals under Sections 409, 201 and 120B of the IPC to seven years imprisonment besides imposing a fine of Rs 2.25 crore on both in the evidence tampering case.
The court also awarded a seven-year-jail term each to former court staffers P P Batra, Anoop Singh and Dinesh Chand Sharma while slapping them with a fine of Rs 3 lakh each.
"After thinking overnights, I have come to the conclusion that they deserve punishment," said while pronouncing the judgment.
On June 13, 1997, halfway through the screening of the Hindi film "Border", a fire broke out in the Uphaar cinema, located in Green Park in south Delhi, killing 59 people.
Ansals were named in the chargesheet following the completion of the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The evidence tampering case surfaced during an inquiry in 2003 when it was found that several important documents in relation to the case's evidence were missing and tampered with.
The legal fight of the case was taken forward by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost their two young children in the 1997 fire catastrophe and they also joined hands in forming the AVUT for the victims' families.
A Netflix series "Trial By Fire," was based on the best-seller book, authored by Krishnamoorthys, portraying the gruelling legal battle and the unbelievably trying journey of the two parents who lost their children.