Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 20 2022 at 18:54 IST
SushilAnsal and Gopal Ansal, two real estate tycoons who were arrested for tampering with evidence in connection with the 1997 Uphaar theatre fire case that claimed 59 lives and damaged many more, had their remaining sentence waived off by a Delhi court on Tuesday.
The Sessions Court waived the defendants’ remaining sentence due to their old age.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate earlier found the Ansal brothers guilty of tampering with evidence in relation with the fire incident at Uphaar Cinema in 1997 and sentenced them to seven years in prison.
After the Patiala House Court’s verdict today, victims of the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire tragedy, including Neelam Krishnamurthy, chair of the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), cried in the courtroom and described the decision disappointing.
Yesterday, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma dismissed the Ansal brothers’ same appeal.
However, the Apex Court had released them after the period they had already spent in prison on the condition that they each paid a fine of Rs 30 crore to be utilised to build a trauma centre in the capital.
Along with the Ansal brothers, the Supreme Court had also found Dinesh Chand Sharma, a former court staff, and two of their employees, P PBatra and Anoop Singh, guilty in the case.
NeelamKrishnamoorthy, the AVUT chairperson, had petitioned the Delhi High Court, and as a result, the High Court ordered that a case be filed and a probe be conducted.