Uphaar theatre's co-owner, Sushil Ansal filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court against his conviction for the fire tragedy which claimed 59 lives in 1997.
NEW DELHI: Uphaar theatre's co-owner, Sushil Ansal, on Monday filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court against his conviction for the fire tragedy which claimed 59 lives in 1997.
Ansal, who along with brother Gopal Ansal was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and simultaneously granted bail by the trial court on November 20, has also moved an application for suspension of the sentence.
In another development, the High Court has asked the city police to complete investigations within a month on allegations that trial court employee tampered with evidence at the instance of Sushil and Gopal Ansal .
Directing standing counsel Mukta Gupta to complete investigations by January 17, Justice H R Malhotra said "despite orders from this court police was not able to nail some accused and saying the investigation is yet to be completed".
"Sufficient time has lapsed, the Public Prosecutor is directed to ensure that the matter is properly investigated," observed the court.
The court order came after the standing counsel told the court that police would file a second supplementary status report soon.
The victims' lawyer K T S Tulsi said that in May last year the High Court had asked the police to register an FIR on the allegation that at the instance of Ansals, the court staff had manipulated evidence.
The senior counsel submitted that, so far, th police has chargesheeted only Dinesh Sharma, a suspended trial court staff, for tampering with evidence and the Ansal brothers were yet to be chargesheeted.
In his appeal, Sushil Ansal alleged that the trial court while convicting him failed to appreciate the evidence that he was not in the board of directors of the company responsible for operating the cinema hall at the time of the incident.
He said the trial court ignored the plea that it was his company which was the licensee for screening film and he as an individual was not responsible for the mishap.
Last month, the Ansal brothers were convicted along with 10 others by a court here in the fire tragedy case for causing death of cine-goers by their rash and negligent act under section 304 A of the IPC.
Besides Ansals, other three, convicted for similar offence were also sentenced to two years jail term.
The Court, however, held guilty seven other convicts, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment.
About 59 people including women and children were killed due to a devastating fire in the hall during the screening of Hindi movie 'Border' on June 13, 1997.
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