Gopal Ansal moves HC in Uphaar case

Gopal Ansal moves HC in Uphaar case1 Jan 2008, 0522 hrs IST,TNN

NEW DELHI: Businessman Gopal Ansal, one of the 12 convicts in the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case, on Monday approached the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and sentence of two-year prison term by a trial court. Appearing before a vacation Bench comprising Justices H R Malhotra and P K Bhasin, the counsel for Gopal Ansal sought the court’s permission to file the appeal, which was granted by the Bench. The court posted the matter for further hearing on January 02, the day on which a regular Bench is expected to take up the appeal of his brother Sushil Ansal who has also been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. HC had already on December 11 issued notices to the CBI and Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) on Sushil’s petition and sought their response to his appeal for suspension of sentence. In his appeal, Gopal, like his brother has maintained that the lower court wrongly implicated him in the case without appreciating that he was not the licensee of the ill-fated cinema hall. Saying that the second transformer which led to the tragedy was "thrust upon" the management by the civic agencies, Ansal has questioned why only he and his brother along with Uphaar management were singled out when it was the duty of other agencies like DCP licensing to ensure removal of any alleged deviations in the hall. The petition further argues that it was the job of the parking authorities outside the hall to manage vehicles in and around the cinema hall for which the owners can’t be held liable. On November 23, a Patiala house sessions court had sentenced Sushil Ansal along with his brother Gopal — the owners of cinema hall — to a two-year jail term for causing death by their negligent act. Seven others — Radha Krishan Sharma, N S Chopra, Ajit Chowdhary (Uphaar managers), Manmohan Unniyal (cinema’s gatekeeper), Brij Mohan Satija, A K Gera and Bir Singh (all DVB officials) — held guilty for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, were awarded seven years’ rigorous imprisonment. The other three, convicted for offences similar to that of the Ansals were also given a two years’ jail term each but were granted bail.
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