Uphaar fire: Hearing against Ansals' on bail terms for 11 May

New Delhi: A Delhi court today adjourned till 11 May the hearing in a case involving Uphaar cinema hall owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, facing prosecution for allegedly tampering with judicial records relating to case of the 1997 fire which killed 59 people. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Amit Bansal adjourned the hearing as counsel for accused Sushil Ansal was not present today. During the proceedings, the counsel for prosecution advanced his arguments. Delhi Police had earlier approached the court seeking imposition of “conditions” for bail for the Ansal’s saying the case pertains to offences of destruction of judicial records and fabricating of false evidences and thus conditions were required to be imposed on the accused. Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) said that the matter has been adjourning continuously from past 10 dates of hearing and till now even the arguments on charges have not began in the case. [caption id=“attachment_234984” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A Delhi court today adjourned till 11 May the hearing in a case involving Uphaar cinema hall owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, facing prosecution for allegedly tampering with judicial records relating to case of the 1997 fire which killed 59 people. Reuters”]  [/caption] Earlier, Ansals and four other accused – Anoop Singh, Prem Prakash Batra, Harswaroop Panwar and Dharamveer Malhotra – were granted bail in the case on furnishing of a personal and surety bond of Rs one lakh each as a pre-condition. The court, however, had not imposed the restrictive and necessary conditions such as that they would not tamper with the evidence and will not threaten the witnesses, on Ansals and others while freeing them on bail. Seventh accused Dinesh Chandra Sharma, a sacked record keeper of the trial court, was also granted bail prior to the six accused in the case. Ansals, convicted and sentenced to one-year jail term in the main Uphaar fire case, are accused of colluding with others, including a court’s record keeper, in destroying crucial judicial documents. The documents allegedly proved that the Ansals, contrary to their claims, were the owners of the theatre at the time of the incident. The documents said to have been tampered with included a police memo giving details of recoveries made immediately after the incident, Delhi Fire Service records pertaining to repair of transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of the 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, it said. The Ansal brothers had argued that they had already resigned from the board of directors of M/s Ansal Theatres and Clubotels Pvt Limited, which owned the cinema hall, before the fire tragedy. PTI