Uphaar fire tragedy: Sushil and Gopal Ansal get 7-year jail term, Rs 2.25-cr fines in evidence tampering case

A Delhi court on Monday awarded seven-year jail terms to real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of Uphaar cinema fire which had claimed 59 lives. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma also imposed a fine of ₹2.25 crore each on the Ansals. The court also gave 7-year-jail terms to former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others — PP Batra and Anoop Singh — and imposed a fine of ₹3 lakh on each of them. “After thinking over nights and nights, I have come to the conclusion that they deserve punishment,” the Judge said. The convicts, out on bail, were taken into the custody after the order was pronounced. The case is related to tampering with the evidence in the main fire tragedy case in which the Ansals were convicted and sentenced to two-year jail term by the Supreme Court. The apex court, however, released them taking into account the prison time they had done on the condition that they pay ₹30 crore fine each, to be used for building a trauma centre in the National Capital. The fire had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of the Hindi film ‘Border’ on 13 June, 1997, claiming 59 lives.