Magistrate quot;commitsquot; Uphaar case to sessions court

NEW DELHI, January 4: The Uphaar case was today committed' to the sessions court after the conclusion of the marathon proceedings in the...

NEW DELHI, January 4: The Uphaar case was today committed8217; to the sessions court after the conclusion of the marathon proceedings in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate MM Brijesh Sethi, which began on January 19 last year.

Sushil Ansal and 15 other accused persons will now undergo trial before a sessions court for alleged offences under the Indian Penal Code.

The MM earlier rejected an application that sought separation of trial for Delhi Fire Service official H.S. Panwar, MCD administration officer Shyam Sunder Sharma and cinema hall manager Surinder Dutt accused under section 304A causing death due to negligence.

According to the appeal, the section is a minor offence in contrast to section 304 culpable homicide not amounting to murder invoked for the remaining accused which calls for life punishment.

Citing a Supreme Court judgement, the MM expressed the court8217;s inability to pass an order in connection with the plea. 8220;I am of the opinion that the committal court cannot go into the question of separate trial or probe deeply into the material filed alongwith the chargesheet,8221; the MM said.

He further opined that since all the cases were interconnected, they be tried with common evidence. Another application moved by accused Nirmal Singh Chopra for dropping the charges framed against him due to lack of enough evidence, was also disposed of. Stating the same grounds, Sethi said that the magistrate had limited powers under the CrPC provisions and therefore the matter should be decided by the sessions court. He said: 8220;The honourable Supreme court had observed in a case that the functions left to be performed by the Magistrate such as granting copies, preparing the records and notifying the public prosecutor are preliminary in nature. It is solely to perform such preliminary functions as a facilitator8221;.

Sushil Ansal, Gopal Ansal, MCD administrative officer N.D. Tiwari and Delhi Fire Service officers H.S. Panwar and Surinder Dutt are charged under the Indian Penal Code with causing death due negligence and causing hurt by acts endangering life.

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Managers of the movie theatre Rajinder Mohan Puri, K.L. Malhotra, R.K. Sharma, Nirmal Singh and Ajit Choudhary; DVB officers Beer Singh, B.M. Satija and A.K. Gera; hall gatekeeper Manmohan Unityal have been charged with causing death due to negligence and causing hurt by acts endangering to life.

In the wake of questions about the role of the licensing department, the Uphaar case was transferred to the CBI for investigations. The chargesheet was filed on November 15, 1997. Departmental action was sought against the PWD, DVB, MCD, Delhi Fire Service and licensing department officials. However, the officials8217; names were not disclosed.

The court took cognisance of the chargesheet on January 19, 1998. A short-circuit had reportedly taken place in the cinema hall8217;s transformer in 1989. There was no casualty reported during the incident. Delhi Fire officials H.S. Pawar and Surinder Dutt had reportedly given a clearance certificate to the cinema hall in 1997 after an inspection.