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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice in the plea challenging the Patiala House Court order reducing the sentence of the accused in the Uphaar tragedy evidence tampering case.

The plea has challenged the order wherein the sentence of Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal, PP Batra & DC Sharma has been reduced from 7 years simple imprisonment to the sentence already undergone (8 months & 12 days) and their release has been directed, if not required in any other case.

A bench of Justice Asha Menon posted the matter for further hearing on October 11, while seeking a response from the State Government and Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal, and other accused.

The plea has been filed by the Association of Victims of Ansal Tragedy alleging that the accused tried to meddle with the functioning of the judicial system and the impugned judgment failed to appreciate the gravity of the offenses committed by them.

The matter pertains to the incident of 1997, wherein, at least 59 people died of asphyxiation and over 100 others were injured in a stampede after a fire broke out in Uphaar cinema hall on June 13, 1997, during the screening of JP Dutta's film 'Border'.

Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal and two employees among others were convicted for tampering with crucial evidence in the case. The Court had convicted all the accused under sections 409, 201, and 120B of IPC.

However, the lower court while reducing the sentence noted that "the proportionality test in criminal jurisprudence applied in the instant case by no stretch of the imagination could be applied in such a manner so as to make the appellants Sushil & Gopal Ansal suffer greater punishment for what they have actually served for commission of the offences in the main Uphaar case since that would be the realm of “double jeopardy.”

It was also held that the only mitigating factor for DC Sharma was that he had already suffered punishment in the nature of dismissal from service & neither any evidence was found during the investigation against him nor any evidence was brought forth by the prosecution and the prosecution failed to establish any pecuniary benefit out of the whole episode.

Case Title: Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy v. State of NCT of Delhi & Ors.