Uphaar evidence tampering case: Delhi Court sentences Ansal brothers to period undergone, orders release

After dismissing appeals against their conviction in the evidence tampering case connected to the Uphaar fire tragedy, a Delhi Court on Tuesday sentenced Gopal and Sushil Ansal to the period undergone and ordered their release [Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal v State]..The order came after District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma set aside the sentence of the trial court, holding the same to be disproportionate to the offence committed and retributive in nature, so as to teach the Ansal brothers a lesson."...this Court finds that quantum of sentence of imprisonment awarded by the Ld. Trial Court is not only harsh, onerous but also disproportionate to the offence committed...The whole tone and tenor of the impugned order on sentence dated 08.11.2021 would show that the Ld. Trial Court passed the order on sentence, which by all parameters was punitive and retributive in nature so as to teach a lesson to the appellants Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal," the order on sentence stated..A magistrate court had in November 2021 awarded a seven-year jail sentence to the Ansals along with ₹2.25 crore fine each for tampering with evidence in the fire tragedy case. The Ansals and others have essentially spent about 8 months in prison after their conviction and sentencing by the trial court.Other convicts PP Batra, Dinesh Chandra Sharma and Singh were awarded the same jail term, but slapped with a ₹3 lakh fine each.The District and Sessions Court on Monday upheld the conviction of Ansal brothers and other accused persons. Another accused Anoop Singh Karayat was acquitted by the Court.Today, it sentenced the brothers to imprisonment for the period already undergone by them in judicial custody and payment of ₹2 crore each as fine within a period of seven days, failing which the same shall be recoverable as per arrears of land revenue.Batra and Sharma were also sentenced to imprisonment for the period already spent in custody..While noting that it was not oblivious to public sentiment associated with the case, or for that matter the sentiments of the complainants, the Court held,"...but then the instant case is not all about appellants Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal, howsoever notorious they might be. It is more importantly about appellants Dinesh Chandra Sharma and P.P. Batra. Considering the long years of service in justice delivery system and experience, to my mind the worst culprit in this case was appellant Dinesh Chandra Sharma, who fell prey to the criminal conspiracy hatched by appellants Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal to cause disappearance of vital piece of evidence."It found that there was substance in the arguments raised on behalf of the accused that the magistrate's order on sentence has left out just, fair and humane considerations and disregarded mitigating circumstances such as the appellants' age, ailments and the sufferance of protracted trial for almost 20 years.Even though the punishment under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the Indian Penal Code attracts life imprisonment or imprisonment for ten years, the Court noted,"...the proportionality test in criminal jurisprudence applied in the instant case by no stretch of imagination could be such applied in manner so as to make the appellants Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal suffer greater punishment for what they have actually served for commission of offences in the main Uphaar Case, since that would be in the realm of “double jeopardy”. What can not be directly, can not be enforced indirectly by the Prosecution since that course of action would be patently unconstitutional.".Monday’s judgment held that the prosecution had proved the motive behind the offence of destruction or tampering of evidence and defacement of the judicial record, besides the nexus between the parties.“I find that the criminal appeals filed by the appellants Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal, PP Batra and Dinesh Chandra Sharma assailing the impugned judgment dated 08.10.2021 are devoid of any merits and the same are hereby dismissed. Accordingly, the judgment on conviction accorded against the appellants Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal, PP Batra and Dinesh Chandra Sharma on various grounds under Sections 409, 201 read with 120B IPC by the Trial Court is sustained,” held the Court..The case arose from a devastating fire that took place at Delhi's Uphaar Cinema on June 13, 1997, that took 59 lives and left several people injured. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), after completing its investigation, had submitted a chargesheet against Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal and other accused.An inquiry was ordered by a court in 2003 after some documents related to the Uphaar tragedy case went missing from the court record room. Upon conclusion of the inquiry, the court employee was dismissed.When the trial was at a sufficiently advanced stage, the public prosecutor noticed that several important documents that had been seized by the Investigating Officer and filed along with the chargesheet, were either missing from records or had been tampered with..Senior Advocate N Hariharan and Advocates Vikas Aggarwal Sushil Kumar Gupta, Siddarth S Yadav, Purya Rekha Angara, Nitin Pachori, Prateek Bhalla, Ikshvaaku Marwaj, Sushil Satrwla, Gautam Khazanchi, Kumar Vaibhav, Sukanya Joshi, Vaibhav Dubey and Somaya Gupta represented the Ansal brothers.Advocates Ridhima Mandhar, Varun Kumar, Abhijuday Sharma and Abhishek Kaliyarasan, represented Batra.Advocate Sudarshan Rajan represented Sharma.Advocate Tarun Chandiok represented Karayat.Additional Public Prosecutor AT Ansari appeared for the State.The complainants Neelam and R Krishnamoorthy were present in Court physically when the order was pronounced. They were represented by Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa and Advocate Raavi Sharma..[Read Order]