Uphaar tragedy: Delhi HC rejects Ansal brothers’ plea to suspend 7-year-jail term in evidence tampering case

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 16

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of real estate barons Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal to suspend the seven-year jail term awarded to them in the Uphaar fire tragedy evidence tampering case.

The Ansal brothers had sought suspension of sentence on several grounds, including their health and old age.

Justice Subramonium Prasad—who dismissed Ansal Brothers’ plea—however, allowed suspension of sentence of another convict Anoop Singh Karayat.

Last year, the Ansal brothers and former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others—PP Batra and Anoop Singh Karayat—were given a seven-year jail term by a Delhi court and they were denied suspension of sentence.

“A 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 had said. He had also imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 crore each on the Ansal brothers.

The sessions court had termed the case as “one of the gravest of its kind” and the offence appeared to be the outcome of a calculated design on the part of the convicts to interfere with the course of justice.

On June 13, 1997, during the screening of Hindi film ‘Border’, a fire broke out in Uphaar Cinema, situated in the Green Park area here, killing 59 people and injuring 100 others.