AN UPDATE ON CRIMINAL CASE,CIVIL CASE AND TAMPERING OF EVIDENCE CASE
7 min readAN UPDATE ON CRIMINAL,CIVIL AND TAMPERING OF EVIDENCE CASE
BRIEF CHRONOLOGY OF CRIMINAL CASE
| SR. NO. | ACCUSED | CONVICTION & SENTENCE BY TRIAL COURT ON 20.11.07 | CONVICTION BY HIGH COURT ON 19.12.09 |
| 1. | SUSHIL ANSAL
A-1 |
Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
S.14 OF CA 1952 TWO YEARS |
Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
S.14 OF CA 1952 . SENTENCE REDUCED TO ONE YEAR |
| 2. | GOPAL ANSAL
A-2 |
Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
S.14 OF CA 1952
TWO YEARS |
Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
S.14 OF CA 1952. SENTENCE REDUCED TO ONE YEAR |
| 3. | RADHA KRISHAN SHARMA
(MANAGER UPHAAR)
|
S.304 r/w 36 IPC
SEVEN YEARS |
ACQUITTED BY HIGH COURT |
| 4. | NIRMAL SINGH CHOPRA | S.304 r/w 36 IPC
SEVEN YEARS |
ACQUITTED BY HIGH COURT |
| 5. | MANMOHAN UNIYAL | S.304 r/w,337,338 36 IPC
SEVEN YEARS |
S.304 A,337,338 r/w 36 IPC. SENTENCED FOR TWO YEARS |
| 6. | BRIJ MOHAN
SATIJA |
S.304, r/w 36 IPC
SEVEN YEARS |
S.304A ,337,338 r/w 36 IPC. SENTENCED FOR TWO YEARS |
| 7. | ANAND KUMAR GERA | S.304 r/w 36 IPC
SEVEN YEARS |
ACQUITTED BY HIGH COURT |
| 8. | BIR SINGH | S.304, r/w 36 IPC
SEVEN YEARS |
S.304A ,337,338 r/w 36 IPC. SENTENCED FOR TWO YEARS |
| 9. | SHYAM SUNDER SHARMA | Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
TWO YEARS |
ACQUITTED BY HIGH COURT |
| 10. | NARAYAN DUTT TIWARI | Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
TWO YEARS |
ACQUITTED BY HIGH COURT |
| 11. | HAR SWARUP PANWAR | Ss. 304A, 337,338 r/w 36 IPC
TWO YEARS |
Sec 304A OF IPC
SENTENCE REDUCED TO ONE YEAR |
NOTE: OUT OF 16 ACCUSED, 5 ACCUSED HAVE DIED DURING TRIAL
13.06.1997: Fifty nine people die of Asphyxia in the worst ever cinema disaster in the country due to fire at Uphaar cinema in New Delhi. The FIR was lodged in the Hauz Khas Police Station. The investigation was handed over to crime branch Delhi Police in the third week of June 1997.
24.07.1997: Case transferred to CBI
15.11.1997: Charge Sheet filed by CBI against 16 accused.
20.11.2007: Judgement of Trial Court convicting all the 12 accused charge sheeted by the CBI
23.11.2007: Order on sentence by the trial court as per the above chart. (All the 12 accused appealed in the High Court against the trial Court order)
10.09.2008: The Hon’ble Supreme Court cancelled the bail granted to Sushil Ansal,Gopal Ansal by the High Court.
19.12.2008: Judgement of the High Court .The High court convicted 6 out of 12 convicted by the trial court.The details are as per the chart above.The Hon’ble High Court in Para 9.74 of the Judgement has held as under;
“The most crucial decision of the company which had direct links with deaths of 59 patrons and grevious injury to 100 others,are beyond any question or doubt attributable to Sushil Ansal & Gopal Ansal.Thus:
1. The decison to install a DVB transformer contrary to sanction plan and without the permission or approval of the Licensing Authority and MCD;
2. Absence of Fire safety measures within the transformer room again contrary to regulations;
3. The Structural Deviations in the cinema hall;
4. Use of several portions of the cinema hall for commercial purposes;
5. Negligent management of parking;
6. The decision taken to completely shut the right side gangway in the balcony,that reduced the number of gangways,correspondingly increased the seats and also crucially blocked the right exit;
7. Failure to ensure proper supervision within the cinema at the time of the show contrary to the mandate of DCR 1953 & 1981;
8. Failure to ensure functioning fire safety equipment that would have warned patrons to leave the cinema hall immediately upon the outbreak of fire or an emergency and also facilitate their escape through proper lighting ; were directly attributable to the owners and occupiers of this cinema hall.”
30.01.2009: The court issued notice on an SLP filed by AVUT for enhancement of sentence of Sushil Ansal & Gopal Ansal and alteration of charge to Section 304 IPC.
30.01.2009: The Hon’ble Supreme Court granted bail to Sushil Ansal,Gopal Ansal & H S Panwar.The court also issued notice on an SLP filed by Ansals and passed the follwing order;
” Issue notice on the Special Leave Petition
Issue notice also on the question as to why; in the event the provision of section 304A of the Indian Penal Code are found to be applicable,sentence be not enhanced.
In the meantime,the petitioner shall be released on bail on furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs 10,000/-with two surities of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the trial court.”
09.04.2009: The Hon’ble Supreme Court issued notice on an SLP filed by CBI against all the 11 accused.
(All the convicts except Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal and H S Panwar have completed their sentence. Sushil Ansal & Gopal Ansal were in jail for 140 days)
Note : AVUT,CBI, Sushil Ansal , Gopal Ansal and H S Panwar have filed SLP’s in the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The notice has been issued on all the appeals. The matter is pending hearing.
BRIEF CHRONOLOGY OF CIVIL CASE
The Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) filed a Civil Writ on 28th July 1997 in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India against the Government Authorities and the Company & Management of the Cinema. But the same was referred to the High Court.
28. 07.1997: Civil Writ filed by AVUT in Supreme Court
17.10.1997: Case referred to Delhi High Court as the matter related to the parties coming under NCT of Delhi.
24.05.1999: The matter is taken up as part heard on day-to-day basis till 8.10.99
29.02.2000: The Writ filed by AVUT is maintained.
24.04.2003: The Judgement was pronounced by the Hon,ble Justice S K Mahajan and Hon,ble Justice Mukul Mudgul.The total compensation awarded was Approximately Rs 18.5 Crores.The salient features of the order are as follows:
55% of the total compensation amount to be paid by Ansals
15% each to be paid by DVB, DCP (Licensing) & MCD
Rs 15,00,000 + 9% interest from the date of filing of the writ to the deceased below the age group of 20 yrs
Rs 18,00,000 + 9% interest from the date of filing of the writ to the deceased above the age group of 20 yrs
Rs 1,00,000 for Injured
Rs 2,50,00,000 to be paid by Ansals as Punitive damages to the Union of India for the purposes of Trauma Centre.
08.09.2003: The DCP (Lic) & MCD file SLP in the Supreme Court and the leave is granted to them.
28.11.2003 : Ansals file an SLP in the Supreme court and the Apex court issued notices.
11.10.2004: Leave granted to Ansal Theatre & Clubotels (P) Ltd by the Hon’ble Supreme Court with directions to deposit Rs 3,01,40,000 of which 50 % of the amount deposited to be disbursed to the claimants.
12.05.2009: Directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to list the appeals in the month of October 2009 for hearing.
BRIEF CHRONOLOGY WITH REGARDS TO TAMPERING OF DOCUMENTS
10.01.2003: CBI files an application regarding missing documents
31.01.2003: ASJ Mamta Sehgal orders for an enquiry after the report submitted by the concerned court staff confirming the missing documents & allowing secondary evidence i.e photocopies of the missing documents accompanied by an affidavit from the concerned I.O.
14.02.2003: Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy file an application under section 439(2) of code of criminal procedure seeking the cancellation of bail granted to the accused persons namely Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal & H S Panwar with regards to missing documents from the court records.
29.04.2003: The Ld ASJ Mamta Sehgal rejects the application of AVUT pertaining to cancellation of bail observing as under:
“I find that the case is at the fag end and only Investigating officer remains to be examined so at this fag end it would not be appropriate to cancel the bail granted to the above three accused persons”
30.05.2003: AVUT filed a criminal Misc. Petition in the Delhi High Court, against the trial court order dt 29.04.03 for cancellation of bail with regard to tampering of evidence against Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal & H S Panwar under u/s 482 R/W section 439 (2) of code of criminal procedure.
25.062004: The Ahalmad of the Court dismissed by the district judge for tampering with the court records.
07.03.2006: AVUT files a Crl.Misc. Application in Crl. Misc (Main Petition No. 2380/2003 in the Hon’ble High Court under section 482 of the code of criminal Procedure praying for directions for registration of a criminal case against offenders for tampering with documents in the court custody.
05.05.2006:The Hon’ble High Court passed following order:
“Delhi Police is called upon to register a case under appropriate provision of law in regard to the incident of removal/tampering with/ mutilation of the documents from the judicial records of the trial court. After the registration of the FIR, investigation shall be entrusted to an officer not below the rank of ACP who will conduct the investigation expeditiously and endeavor to conclude the same within a period three months from the date of this order. A status report shall be filed by the investigating agency before the next date of hearing i.e. 8th August 2006.”
17.05.2006: An FIR is lodged by Delhi Police under Sec. 109/193/201/218/409/120B IPC under the directions of the High Court.
22.11.2006: Dinesh Chandra Sharma ( Court Ahalmad) arrested and sent police remand. He was remanded for eight days.
22.02.2007: Charge Sheet filed EOW Delhi Police in ACMM‘s Court.
23.05.2007: Supplementary Charge Sheet filed enclosing GEQD Report of the documents seized from A Plus Security Agency
17.01.2008: 2nd Charge Sheet filed by EOW Delhi Police and following were arrayed as accused
Sushil Ansal , Gopal Ansal, H S Panwar, PP Batra , Anoop Singh, Col D V Malhotra
15.02.2008: Summons issued by ACMM Patiala House Court
24.02.2008: Sushil Ansal files revision against the Summoning Order in the Hon’ble High Court ( No Stay)
28.04.2008: Gopal Ansal files petition to be listed along with Crl Rev. 224/08 of Sushil Ansal
07.01.2009: Arguments commenced in the Court of Hon’ble Justice S Murlidhar.
20.03.2009: Argumnets concluded & Order reserved