By IANS
New Delhi : A city court Tuesday convicted real estate tycoons Sushil and Gopal Ansal along with 10 others in the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy in which 59 people were asphyxiated to death over 10 years ago.
Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal convicted all the 12 accused. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced Wednesday.
The court charged the theatre owners, the Ansal brothers, under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 14 of the Cinematographic Act.
Similar charges were imposed on two of the other accused, N.D. Tiwari and Shyam Sunder Sharma.
The remaining accused — Radha Krishnan Sharma, Nirmal Singh Chopra, Ajit Chaudhary, Manmohan Unniyal, Brij Mohan, Anand Kumar Gera, Vir Singh and Har Swaroop Pawar — were convicted under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) read with Section 36.
The verdict in the case, in which the charge sheet was filed Nov 15, 1997, was reserved Aug 21.
Shortly after the announcement of the verdict, a lawyer for the Ansal brothers said they would appeal to a higher court.
The case pertains to the tragedy that occurred on June 13, 1997, when a fire broke out at the south Delhi cinema hall during a screening of the film “Border”. A transformer installed in the basement of the theatre had caught fire.
Originally, 16 people were named as accused, but four of them died in the last 10 years.
The Ansal brothers delayed the hearing by moving the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court on several legal counts, including the compensation to be given to the victims’ families.
The trial was expedited after the high court directed that it should be concluded by August 2007.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) examined 115 witnesses, including eight relatives of the Ansals who later turned hostile.