Attempts made to delay trial: Police to HC on Uphaar tragedy

Delhi Police Tuesday contended before the Delhi High Court that every attempt was made by real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal to delay the trial in the Uphaar cinema evidence tampering case and now they cannot take the ground of oldage for suspension of their sevenyear jail terms in the caseJustice Subramonium Prasad who was hearing pleas of Ansals seeking suspension of their sevenyear jail terms in the evidence tampering case said the digitalised copy of trial court record be placed before the high court before the next date of hearing on January 14Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan representing Delhi Police argued that every attempt was made to delay the trial and repeated court interventions were sought so that the trial proceeds and now after conviction the Ansals cannot take the ground of old age for suspension of their sentencesThe police had earlier told the high court that it has serious objections to the release of the Ansal brothers on account of the third wave of the COVID19 pandemic and had argued that the nature of offence was such that it put the entire system in perilThe court had earlier suggested releasing them on an interim basis given their advanced age and COVID19 situation while asking the trial court to decide their appeals against the convictionIt had also observed that even during the previous two waves of the pandemic persons involved in offences for which the two petitioners are convicted were released on bail in terms of directions passed by the Supreme Court and a highpowered committeeOn December 3 last year a sessions court here had rejected Ansals plea to suspend their conviction and jail term in the evidence tampering case by a magisterial court and refused to release them on bailSubsequently the Ansals had moved the high court which had sought response from the Delhi Police and complainant Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy AVUT in the matterSenior advocate Arvind Nigam representing Sushil Ansal had contended that the ldquomutilatedrdquo documents were not even relevant to his culpability in the main Uphaar trial and his conviction in the evidence tampering case was a ldquotravesty of justicerdquoHe had highlighted that Sushil Ansal was over 80 years of age and suffered from various ailments Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Gopal Ansal had also argued that his client was over 70 years of age and the court should exercise its wide and liberal discretion to release himThe court was also informed that in the main case of Uphaar cinema fire in which 59 people died the petitioners were convicted and sentenced to 2year jail term by the Supreme Court which subsequently released them on payment of Rs 30 crore fine each after taking into account the prison time they had doneWhile dismissing Ansals plea for suspension of sentence till the appeal against the conviction by magisterial court is decided the sessions court had said that the case was 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 justiceThe sessions court had also refused to suspend the sevenyear jail term each to former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others P P Batra and Anoop Singh in the case and release them on bailThe tampering was detected for the first time on July 20 2002 and when it was unearthed a departmental enquiry was initiated against Sharma and he was suspendedLater an enquiry was conducted and he was terminated from services on June 25 2004The magisterial court had also imposed a fine of Rs 225 crore each on the Ansals apart from imposing a sevenyearterm in the caseThe case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT chairperson Neelam KrishnamoorthyThe fire had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of the Hindi film Border on June 13 1997 claiming 59 livesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever