Ansal Brothers surrender in Court

Real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal on Thursday surrendered before a Delhi court in compliance with the Supreme Court order cancelling their bail in the case of Uphaar fire tragedy which claimed 59 lives.

Ansal brothers surrendered before Additional Sessions Judge I K Kochhar at the Patiala House district courts.

Two managers of the Uphaar theatre, Ajit Chowdhary and Nirmal Chopra, also surrendered before the court.

On Wednesday all the four were directed by the apex Court to surrender before the trial court by 4 pm on Thursday.

An apex court bench comprising Justices BN Agrawal and GS Singhvi had ordered their arrest after cancelling their bail. 

The apex Court while cancelling the bail of the convicts had taken a strong exception to the alleged tampering with the judicial records of the case by the accused persons.

The bail of the convicts were cancelled on a petition filed by Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) challenging the order of the Delhi High Court.

The trial court on November, 20, 2007 had convicted the Ansal brothers along with three others under Section 304-A IPC (causing death due to rash and negligent act) and had sentenced them to two years imprisonment.

Seven others including Ajit Chowdhary and Nirmal Chopra, managers of the theatre whose bail was also cancelled yesterday, were convicted under Section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Others convicted under section 304 IPC were – Radha Krishan Sharma, Manmohan Unniyal (cinema's gatekeeper), Brij Mohan Satija, A K Gera and Bir Singh (all DVB officials).

The other three convicts - SS Sharma and ND Tiwari of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and HS Panwar of Delhi Fire Service - were also granted two years term as the offences were similar to that of the Ansal brothers.

Fiftynine cinegoers were killed in the blaze in the theatre on June 13, 1997 during the screening of Hindi blockbuster 'Border'.

The High Court had granted bail to the Ansal brothers and two other accused on January 4.