The court had sentenced five convicts, including Sushil and Gopal Ansal, to seven years’ imprisonment in the tampering of evidence related to the Uphaar cinema fire case. 59 people lost their lives in the Uphaar cinema fire.
In the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire, the innocents who were to get a hair-raising ‘death’, all of them died and left the world. After that luscious death of his, but the trial in the courts is ‘alive’ till date. (File Photo)
A Delhi court on Friday dismissed the petition of the Ansal brothers and others seeking suspension of the sentence in the Uphaar cinema fire case. The Ansal brothers had filed a petition in the court seeking suspension of the sentence for tampering with evidence in the Uphaar cinema fire case. The court dismissed the petition on Friday.
Earlier, the court had reserved till December 3 the decision on the issue of suspension of the seven-year sentence awarded to the Ansal brothers. The court had sentenced five convicts, including Sushil and Gopal Ansal, to seven years’ imprisonment in the tampering of evidence related to the Uphaar cinema fire case. 59 people lost their lives in the Uphaar cinema fire.
Hearing to continue on February 23
Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil said the hearing on the appeal against the sentence would continue on February 23 on merits. He said that the petition to suspend the sentence till the appeal is dismissed has been dismissed. With the dismissal, all the accused in the case will remain in jail. Earlier, the judge had sought a response from the government and the Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy in the matter after the Ansal brothers moved the court seeking postponement of their sentence.
Patiala House Court had sentenced
On November 20, the court had granted two days interim bail on “humanitarian grounds” to Dinesh Chandra Sharma, a former court employee, to attend his niece’s wedding, one of the convicts in the tampering of evidence case. On November 8, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House Court, Dr Pankaj Sharma had sentenced the Ansal brothers to seven years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 crore on both. The court had imposed a fine of three lakh rupees each on former employees of the court, PP Batra, Anoop Singh and Sharma and also sentenced them to seven years in jail.
Court imposed a fine of Rs 60 crore
Earlier, the Ansal brothers were convicted by the Supreme Court and sentenced to two years in jail. In 2015, following the court’s direction, the two brothers escaped further prison terms, which involved a fine of Rs 60 crore. In February 2017, the apex court, through a 2:1 majority decision, had relieved 78-year-old Sushil Ansal from further jail term citing complications related to his age.
Although he had already served his sentence. The court had asked his younger brother Gopal Ansal to serve the remaining one year jail term. On June 13, 1997, during the screening of the Hindi film ‘Border’, a fire broke out at Uphaar Cinema in Green Park, South Delhi, in which 59 people were killed.
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