[Uphaar Cinema Fire] Delhi court sentences Ansal brothers to 7 years imprisonment, ₹2.25 crore fine for tampering with evidence

The foundation of judiciary is premised on the trust and confidence of the people and any action which is aimed to thwart it is required to be dealt with the utmost strictness, a Delhi Court on Monday said and sentenced Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal to seven years in jail and saddled them with ₹2.25 crore fine each in the Uphaar Cinema evidence tampering case [State vs. Dinesh Chandra Sharma]..“It is noteworthy that too lenient sentence would be akin to closing the eyes to the agony and anguish of the victim and the public at large. Collective cry of the society must be responded by way of appropriate punishment to prevent re-occurrence of such crimes,” Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma noted in the sentencing order..Other convicts P P Batra, Dinesh Chandra Sharma and Anoop Singh Karayat were awarded the same jail term but slapped with ₹3 lakh fine each. “Since no amount of compensation can alleviate the agony, trauma and the pain suffered by the family members of the victims. However, the compensation in the form of money can provide some succour to them,” the order noted..Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa who represented the victim’s body sought maximum punishment for all convicts emphasising that it was Ansals’ “second conviction”. He argued that the convicts issued 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, submitted a chargesheet against Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal and others 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..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 record or had been tampered with..The 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.“They tampered/obliterated/torn/defaced some hand picked socuments of the said case through meticulous planning in order to escape punishment by scuttling trial process and as such fiddled with our judicial system with great impunity,” the Court noted..The accused were finally convicted of offences under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code..[Uphaar Case] Mere change in counsel not reason to recall witness: Delhi High Court.In 2015, the Supreme Court had 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 Rs. 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..Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa and Advocate Raavi Sharma represented complainant Neelam Krishnamurthy and Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy.Additional Public Prosecutor A T Ansari represented the State.Senior Advocate P K Dubey and Advocate Vikas Aggarwal represented Gopal Ansal.Advocate Tanvir Ahmad Mir along with Advocates Dhruv Gupta, Siddharth Kashyap, Shiraz Berry and Vaibhav Suri appeared for Sushil Ansal.Advocate Manu Sharma along with Advocates Ridhima Mandhar and Varun Kumar appeared for P P Batra.Advocate Sudarshan Rajan appeared for Dinesh Chandra Sharma.Advocate Rohit Sharma represented Anoop Singh Karayat..[Read Order]