New Delhi: Real estate baron Gopal Ansal, one of the convicts in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case, on February 2 moved a plea in a Delhi court seeking clubbing of two other pending criminal cases against him. Ansal, in an application filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gautam Manan, has sought joint trials in two separate FIRs lodged, in 2006 and 2007, for allegedly fudging the judicial records of the Uphaar case and passing lewd remarks against Neelam Krishnamurthy, one of the complainants in the case, respectively.
The court, which was to hear arguments on charges against Ansals and others in the evidence tampering case, has now posted the plea for hearing on February 11. Public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan, during arguments on February 2, opposed the plea saying that such "unnecessary applications" hamper the proceedings and both cases cannot be tried together as they are different.
Krishnamurthy, President of Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), said such pleas would delay the trial. Ansal, in the application, said one case was filed by Delhi Police and other on the compliant by Krishnamurthy and the allegations are outcome of "similar or same transaction".
Besides Gopal, his brother Sushil, PP Batra, Har Swaroop, Anoop Singh and Dharamvir Malhotra have been made accused in the FIR lodged at Tilak Marg police station on May 17, 2006 following a direction by the Delhi High Court for the offence of tampering of evidence.
Later, Krishnamurthy filed a complaint against Gopal Ansal and others alleging that on May 10, 2007, when she was walking out of the court after attending the proceedings, some employees of Ansals clicked her pictures with "ulterior motive" and their security guards also passed "lewd remarks".
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