A Delhi court on Monday sentenced real estate businessmen Sushil and Gopal Ansal to seven years’ simple imprisonment for tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar fire case.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma pronounced the sentence saying it was one of the biggest cases of his career and after “thinking for several nights”, he decided that “the accused deserve punishment”.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 crore on each Ansal.
He was convicted on October 8 under sections 201 (tampering with evidence), 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) of the IPC.
In its judgment convicting the accused, the court observed that the accused had destroyed important documents “which were capable of proving their involvement in the said case” while facing trial in the case.
The court had observed that the accused persons destroyed the documents by meticulous planning to evade punishment by obstructing the process of trial and thereby ruthlessly playing with our judicial system.
It was also observed that the manner in which the accused subjected the process of law to “profanity” is “not undermining the system of justice administration”.
The court said that the accused persons “attacked the very sanctity and sanctity of the judicial system” and their misconception that they would “get away from nefarious designs by punishment has been exposed to the world at large”.
The court convicted the Ansal brothers along with two of their employees PP Batra, Anoop Singh and Dinesh Chand Sharma, a former employee of the court.
The case was registered on the directions of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamurthy.
Molestation was first detected on 20 July 2002 and a departmental inquiry was initiated against Sharma. She was suspended and terminated from service on 25 June 2004.
.