New Delhi, November 23
Uphaar cinema owners Ansal brothers, Sushil and Gopal, and three officials of the MCD and the Delhi Fire Service were today awarded two years in jail by a city court for causing death to 59 cine goers 10 years ago due to their act of negligence.

But three cinema managers, R.K. Sharma, Ajit Chaudhary and N.S. Chopra, its gatekeeper Manmohan Uniyal and three Delhi Vidyut Board officials, B.M. Satija, A.K. Gera and Bir Singh, found guilty under harsher Section 304 of the IPC, which deals with the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, were awarded seven years’ rigorous imprisonment.

Rejecting the convicts’ plea for release on probation, the court, which was not much convinced with such an argument, ordered fresh investigations by the CBI on the role of then DCP (licensing) Amod Kanth and some other officials concerned.

Additional sessions judge Mamta Sehgal was not much convinced how the Delhi Police, a licensing authority for the cinema hall, had escaped legal scrutiny. Amodh Kanth is at present posted as Chief Vigilance Officer with the Delhi Jal Board.

The judge also awarded the two-year jail term to two MCD officials N.D. Tiwari and Shayam Sunder Sharma and Delhi Fire Service officer H.S. Pawar as they along with the Ansal brothers were convicted under a lighter Section 304-A of the IPC and some other provisions of the IPC, which did not carry punishment beyond two years of sentence.

The court, however, enlarged Ansal brothers on bail on their furnishing a bond and a surety of Rs 25,000 each and Tiwari, Sharma and Pawar on executing the bond of Rs 6,000 each. They were entitled to the benefit of bail under the law when the punishment was not rigorous imprisonment, to enable them to appeal in the higher court.

All were ordered to be taken into custody by the court immediately after pronouncement of her verdict to serve the sentence in Capital’s Tihar jail.

The fresh CBI inquiry was directed by the court against Amodh Kanth and other officials as in its opinion the theatre was allowed to run by the Delhi Police despite certain “irregularities” detected about the changes in sitting arrangements.

Taking cue from Ansals’ plea for probation, the other convicts also made similar requests for their release on probation, which the court did not take much note of. Four government officials, who also were charge sheeted by the CBI along with the 12 convicted persons, had died during the 10-year-long trial in one of the worst fire disaster in the cinema history of the country.