Uphaar fire tragedy: Delhi Court dismisses appeal by Ansal brothers against conviction in evidence tampering case

A Delhi Court on Monday dismissed the appeals against conviction of Ansal brothers in the evidence tampering case relating to the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy..District and Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma dismissed the appeals of all the accused persons, including Sushil and Gopal Ansal, except one Anoop Singh. While judgement of the conviction passed by the Magisterial Court was upheld, Singh was acquitted. The arguments on sentence will take place on Tuesday..A Magistrate court had in November 2021, awarded seven years in jail to Ansal along with ₹2.25 crore fine each for tampering with evidence in the fire tragedy case.Other convicts PP Batra, Dinesh Chandra Sharma and Singh were awarded the same jail term but slapped with ₹3 lakh fine each.They had then approached the Sessions Court against the Magistrate verdict. .Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, who represented the victim’s association, sought maximum punishment for all convicts emphasising that it was Ansals’ “second conviction”. He argued that the convicts misused the liberty granted in the main Uphaar case and conspired to the committed crime in the present case.The case arose from a devastating fire that took place in 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 others accused.However, 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.While 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 were filed along with the chargesheet, were either missing from records or had been tampered with..The Magistrate court concluded that the critical documents that could prove their complicity in the crime were destroyed by the Ansal brothers in conspiracy with other accused persons.In the main case of fire tragedy, the Supreme Court had as far back as 2015, held Ansal brothers guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for the tragedy.They were initially sentenced to the period already served and had also been slapped fine of ₹30 crore.Later in a review petition, the top court decided to send Gopal Ansal back to jail for a year while giving reprieve to Sushil considering his advance age..[Uphaar Cinema Fire] Delhi court sentences Ansal brothers to 7 years imprisonment, ₹2.25 crore fine for tampering with evidence