Uphaar Case: Fresh trouble for Ansal brothers

NEW DELHI: In further trouble for the Ansal brothers in the Uphaar fire case, a new chargesheet was moved before a trial court on Friday by Delhi Police which held that there was a 'prima facie' case against them for tampering with judicial records.
   
The issue also came up before the Delhi High Court with the Police claiming to have got hold of 'substantial' evidence against Sushil and Gopal Ansal and four others for 'tampering' with records of the 1997 fire in the posh south Delhi cinema theatre that claimed 59 lives.
   
Ansals had appealed in the High Court against their two year jail term in the fire case.

The documents said to have been tampered with included a police memo giving details of recoveries immediately after the incident, Delhi Fire Service records pertaining to repair of transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of Managing Director's meetings and four cheques, the chargesheet said.
   
Out of the six set of documents, a cheque of Rs 50 lakh, issued by Sushil Ansal to self, and minutes of the MD's meetings, prove beyond doubt that the two brothers were handling the day-to-day affairs of the theatre at the relevant time, it said.

The Ansal brothers had argued that they were not handling the affairs of the theatre as they had already resigned from the board of directors of M/s Ansal Theatres and Clubotels Pvt Limited, which was owning the cinema hall.

According to the chargesheet, Police said that there was a prima facie case against Sushil and Gopal Ansal, their employee P P Batra, then Delhi Fire Service officer H S Panwar, D V Malhotra and Anoop Singh, both belonging to a security agency and sought their prosecution for their complicity in the offence.
   
Police have provided details of documents which were found torn or missing from the judicial files.

All the accused have been booked under various provisions of the IPC including sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy).

In the High Court, Delhi police counsel, Mukta Gupta, submitted a status report before Justice S Muralidhar and said police have complied with the court's direction of filing the final chargesheet by on Friday.

Dinesh Chandra Sharma, a sacked court staff who allegedly tampered with the case records at the instance of Ansal brothers, has also been made an accused in the case, Police said.

The Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) had approached the High Court seeking direction to police for lodging an FIR to probe file tampering.

The AVUT has alleged that Sharma, who was then working as 'ahalmad' (record keeper) in the trial court presided over by Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal, had allegedly tampered with certain records at the instance of Ansals for helping them wriggle out of the case.
   
The Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police, which have been probing the case, was earlier rebuked by the High Court for their alleged tardy probe in the case, in which the FIR was lodged in 2006.
   
Senior advocate K T S Tulsi, appearing for AVUT, submitted before the Court that the victims' family members be given the copy of the chargesheet for ascertaining the veracity of the probe.
   
Asking police to provide the copy of the chargesheet to the victims' family members, the court then posted the matter to March five for further hearing.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police counsel Mukta Gupta informed the bench that they have already approached the district judge for requisite sanction to prosecute sacked court staff Sharma.

According to the chargesheet, Sharma, during the custodial interrogation, had admitted visiting Ansals' office in the capital for getting the court documents photocopied.
   
Sharma, after being sacked from his services, had approached one P P Batra, an alleged employee of Ansals for getting a job, it alleged. Batra has also been named as accused in the chargesheet.

It was also alleged that Sharma, with the help of Ansals' employee, got private job in a security agency, A-Plus Securities, owned by another accused Anoop Singh.

A trial court, on November 20, had convicted theatre owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal for their complicity in the fire case during the screening of a movie on June 13, 1997.