Uphaar tragedy: Court nod to issuing of passport to convict

A Delhi court today said it has no objection to the issuance of passport to 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy convict Sushil Ansal as the matter had nothing to do with the ongoing trial against him in a case of tampering of evidence.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat, while hearing an application of Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) that Ansal's passport number quoted in his plea was different from the one he had earlier mentioned before the court in 2008, said that the objection can be taken into consideration by the passport authority.

"The application filed under section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is dismissed and the application of the accused for grant of NOC for passport is allowed. This court has no objection to the issuance of passport to the accused Sushil Ansal, if he otherwise eligible for the same under the rules prescribed in the Passport Act, 1967," the court said.

AVUT had earlier moved the court saying Ansal was trying to mislead the court by giving wrong information in his plea seeking an NOC for renewal of his passport.

AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy had told the court that Ansal's passport number mentioned in his plea was different from the one he had earlier mentioned before the court in 2008, while the judicial records show that he did not get his passport renewed during this period.

The court is hearing a case related to tampering of evidence in Uphaar fire tragedy after Krishnamoorthy pressed for an early date contending it was a 10-year-old matter which had already been delayed.

Krishnamoorthy, who lost two children in the tragedy, has been fighting a legal battle on behalf of the victims' families for the last 20 years.

The apex court had last year asked Gopal Ansal to undergo the remaining one-year jail term in the case, while his elder brother Sushil got relief from incarceration with a prison term already undergone by him in view of age-related complications.

A fire at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of Hindi film "Border" on June 13, 1997 had claimed 59 lives.