New Delhi: A Delhi court Tuesday dismissed the plea of real estate baron Gopal Ansal, one of the convicts in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case, seeking clubbing of two other pending criminal cases against him.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gautam Manan rejected the plea saying that both the cases are nowhere connected with each other.
Ansal had filed an application seeking joint trials in two separate FIRs lodged, in 2006 and 2007, for allegedly fudging judicial records of the Uphaar case and passing lewd remarks against Neelam Krishnamurthy, one of the complainants in the case, respectively.
He had said that one case was filed by Delhi Police and other was lodged on the compliant by Krishnamurthy and the allegations are outcome of "similar or same transaction".
Public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan had opposed the plea saying 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), had also argued that such pleas would delay the trial.
During the proceedings today, the court also heard the arguments on charges against Ansal and others in the case of alleged fudging of judicial records of the Uphaar case.
The prosecutor concluded his arguments on charges and the court has now listed the matter for further hearing on March 21.
Besides Gopal, his brother Sushil Ansal, P P 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.
PTI
