A Delhi court on Wednesday asked the Government and the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) to respond to the pleas challenging 7-year jail terms awarded 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.
Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil issued notice on the appeals filed by the Ansal brothers challenging their conviction and the jail term awarded by a magisterial court here on Monday.
The Judge also sought a report from the Medical Superintendent of Tihar Jail after it was submitted that Sushil Ansal was admitted to the jail hospital last night after he claimed he was unwell.
Reacting to the claim, AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy said, “Having spent little over two nights in jail, Sushil Ansal gets hospitalised, thanks to the loopholes in the system. How quick are they to save their own lives? What of the 59 lives they took so heartlessly?”
During the hearing, the accused objected to the locus of the AVUT.
The sessions court, however, directed the accused to serve the copy of the appeal to the Association after its counsel, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, opposed their submission.
The application filed by senior advocate P.K. Dubey before the ASJ on Wednesday claimed that the conviction and sentence of the accused was based upon “assumption, presumption, conjectures and surmises and in miss appreciation of evidence on record.”
