Reply to Gopal Ansal’s plea in evidence tampering case, Delhi HC to police

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the city police to respond to a petition by real estate tycoon Gopal Ansal who has challenged the court’s order convicting him for tampering with evidence in the case related to the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire tragedy.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav issued the direction on Ansal’s plea and posted the matter for further hearing on December 13.

The tampering was detected for the first time on July 20, 2002, and a departmental inquiry was initiated.

The fire tragedy, which broke out at the cinema during the screening of the Hindi film ‘Border’ on June 13, 1997, claimed 59 lives. The Ansals were convicted and sentenced to a two-year jail term by the Supreme Court in August 2015.

Jail term

A local court had on November 8, 2021, awarded seven-year jail term to the real estate barons. However, a Sessions court on July 19, 2022, modified the local court’s order on sentence and ordered the release of Sushil and Gopal Ansal, former court staff Dinesh Chandra Sharma and Ansal’s then employee Batra against their already undergone jail term since November 8, 2021.

The Sessions court had imposed a fine of ₹3 crore on Sushil and Gopal Ansal each and ₹30,000 on Batra and ₹60,000 on Sharma.

Gopal Ansal, in his revision petition before the High Court, argued that the findings arrived at by the Magisterial court and later by the Sessions court are “totally perverse” and against the settled proposition of law and criminal jurisprudence.

“The conclusion drawn by the appellate court (Sessions court) are totally misconstrued based on misinterpretation of law and facts,” his plea said.

Last month, Sushil Ansal had moved the High Court challenging his conviction in the evidence tampering case.

Meanwhile, the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) has filed a petition in the high court seeking enhancement of the punishment awarded to the convicts in the evidence tampering case.