Uphaar Fire Tragedy: Builders Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal Get 7 Years In Jail For Evidence Tampering

On June 13, 1997, during the screening of the Hindi film 'Border', 59 people were killed when a fire broke out in the Uphaar cinema hall.

Representational Image. (File Photo)

New Delhi: The Delhi Court on Monday awarded 7-years of jail term to real estate businessmen Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire case.

On June 13, 1997, during the screening of the Hindi film 'Border', 59 people were killed when a fire broke out in the Uphaar cinema hall.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma had also convicted Dinesh Chand Sharma, a former employee of the court, and two others - PP Batra and Anoop Singh - in the case.

Uphaar fire tragedy: Delhi court awards 7-year jail terms to Sushil and Gopal Ansal in evidence tampering case

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Previously on Friday, the court had asked the income certificates of all the accused to be produced by Monday to fix the compensation for the victims and their families.

This case is related to tampering of evidence in the main case related to the Uphaar cinema fire. In the main case, Sushil and Gopal Ansal were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court.

The court, however, had released him on the condition that he would pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each for the construction of a trauma centre in the national capital, keeping in mind the time spent in jail. Two other accused – Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamveer Malhotra – died during the trial.

The court accepted the submission of senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for the complainant Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), that Ansal and Panwar had committed a criminal conspiracy to destroy the most important evidence gathered by the CBI in the main case.

The case was registered on the directions of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT President Neelam Krishnamurthy. Pahwa told the court that several documents were torn and some were missing. The prosecution claimed that Ansal was prosecuted in the main case and that the documents which were destroyed or illegally removed, clarified his involvement in the day-to-day functioning of Uphaar Cinema.

The tampering of evidence was first detected on July 20, 2002, and a departmental inquiry was initiated against Dinesh Chand Sharma. He was dismissed on June 25, 2004. The prosecution said that after losing his job, Sharma was helped by the Ansal brothers in getting employment at a monthly salary of Rs 15,000. The Delhi Police had earlier told the court that tampering of evidence by real estate dealers has undermined the common man's faith in the justice system.

(With PTI Inputs)