Uphaar tragedy: Delhi HC issues notice on Ansals' plea against trial court order

New Delhi, Dec 15 The Delhi court on Wednesday issued notice on pleas filed by real estate barons Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal challenging a trial court which had dismissed their interim pleas seeking suspension of the seven-year jail terms in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case.

A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad posted the matter for January 6, 2022 for final disposal in the matter.

Earlier, on December 3, Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil observed that the trial court itself cannot be the sole criteria to grant relief to the Ansals when they were involved in the procrastinated trial of the case.

On November 8, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Court, Dr. Pankaj Sharma, had sentenced Ansals 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 to former court staffers P.P. Batra, Anoop Singh, and Dinesh Chandra Sharma while slapping them a fine of Rs 3 lakh each.

It had, on November 20, granted two days interim bail to former court staff Dinesh Chandra Sharma, one of the convicts in the evidence tampering case, on "humanitarian grounds" to attend the engagement ceremony of his niece.

Earlier, the Ansals were convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by the Supreme Court.

The apex court had in August 2015 allowed the duo to walk free and asked them to pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each.

The convicts, who were out on bail then, were taken into custody after the order was pronounced. 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 in one of the worst tragedies.

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