On Friday, a Delhi sessions court refused the Ansal brothers' request for a seven-year suspension of their sentence for tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire catastrophe case.
Sushil and Gopal Ansal, real estate moguls, were found guilty of tampering with evidence in the fire catastrophe, with the court stating that they "attacked the fundamental purity and sanctity of the legal system," making it the "victim."
The tampering was discovered in July 2002, indicating that "when the accused became certain that the trial would go quickly, they devised a plot to destroy the most significant document in order to avoid punishment," as the court had previously stated.
The Ansals, together with five others, including the then-court employees, ripped, disfigured, and erased critical papers of the prosecution evidence to ensure their acquittal during the primary case relating to the disaster that lost 59 lives. In this case, the Ansals were found guilty.
The Ansals were fined Rs 2.25 crore each after the magisterial court found them guilty of violating sections 409, 201, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.
Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamvir Malhotra were two of the seven defendants who died during the trial. Businessmen Gopal, Sushil Ansal, and others recently filed a motion before session court challenging the magistrate Court's decision.
On the 13th of June 1997, a fire broke out at the Uphaar theatre during a screening of the Hindi film 'Border,' killing 59 people. In reality, in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire case, Sushil and Gopal Ansal were sentenced to 7 years in prison by Delhi's Patiala House Court for tampering with evidence.