Caught lying about pending prosecution sanction & dropping charges against Ansal, police show-caused

New Delhi: Noting that the investigating officer of the Delhi Police had misled the court about not having received the sanction to prosecute Sushil Ansal, a convict in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire tragedy, for alleged fraud while applying for a passport renewal, a Delhi court on Monday issued a show-cause notice to the police.

While Ansal has been convicted of suppressing evidence in the fire case, which killed 59 people, this case pertains to allegations that he defrauded government authorities by hiding his Uphaar case criminal history, while applying for a passport renewal. In this case, the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) has said that RTI replies they had obtained showed considerable discrepancies between what the police told the L-G and what it filed in court.

When Sushil Ansal was trying to renew his passport, the police had submitted before the court on January 31 that the sanction to prosecute him was still pending with the L-G's office despite RTI documents showing that the required sanction was granted in September last year and also communicated to the police then.

Taking the police's submissions at face value, the court had granted the IO three weeks to obtain the sanction. Now, the court was informed by AVUT Chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy that conflicting details had emerged from the RTI documents she had obtained.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for the AVUT, pointed out that the charge sheet filed in the court was only under section 177 (furnishing false information), 181 (knowingly stating to a public servant, on oath as True that which is false) of IPC and 12 (obtaining a passport by suppressing information about his nationality) of Passport Act, whereas the draft charge sheet filed with the office of the LG on May 22, 2020 was under sections 420 (cheating), 177, 181, 192 (giving or fabricating false evidence), 197 (issuing of sighting false certificate) of IPC and section 12 of the Passport Act.

It is surprising to note how such important sections were deleted when the charge sheet was actually filed in the court, the counsel told the court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma issued the notice to the IO on both the accounts and directed him to file the reply by March 4, the next date of hearing.

The police had earlier told the court in its charge sheet that Ansal played a fraud on authorities by concealing information, including that related to his conviction in the Uphaar case while getting his passport renewed.

The case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by Krishnamoorthy, alleging that Ansal concealed or gave false information to the authorities for the renewal of his passport.