New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday granted two-day interim bail to a man awarded a seven-year jail term for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of Uphaar cinema fire which had claimed 59 lives, noting there was no elderly male member in the family to make arrangements for his niece's engagement ceremony.
Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil granted relief to Dinesh Chand Sharma, a former court staff, sent to jail along with real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal and others by a magisterial court earlier this month.
The relief was granted on Sharma's application that claimed that there was no elderly male member in the family to make arrangements for already scheduled ceremony and he be released for a limited period of seven days to attend the said ceremony of his niece. It had claimed that the woman's father passed away last month and her grandfather also expired.
The court had called for a status report along with verification report regarding the engagement ceremony as well as death verification report of the persons concerned from the investigating officer (IO).
The IO filed a report verifying the claims made by the accused. During the arguments, the prosecution submitted that it had no objection if the permission was granted to attend the ceremony for a limited period of only a day.
"Therefore, without adverting to the merits of the case, on humanitarian grounds the sentence of conviction of convict Dinesh Chandra Sharma is suspended for two days, i.e., November 21 and 22 and he is allowed to attend the engagement ceremony, the court said.