INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - NOVEMBER 16^th - NOVEMBER 30^th - 2007

ANSAL BROTHERS GIVEN 2 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT

A city court has sentenced Sushil and Gopal Ansal, the owners of Uphaar Cinema, to two years' imprisonment in the decade old case. The court granted them bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000.

The court also ordered a fresh CBI probe against then DCP (licensing) Amod Kanth and some other government officials for their role in allowing the Uphaar Cinema to function in violation of safety norms.

Additional sessions judge Mamta Sehgal sentenced the Ansal brothers under Section 304A of IPC which provides for a maximum punishment of 2 years in jail.

Seven other convicts, held guilty for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, were awarded seven years rigorous imprisonment and taken into custody after the sentence was pronounced. They were Radha Krishan Sharma, N S Chopra, Ajit Chowdhary (Uphaar managers), Manmohan Unniyal (cinema's gatekeeper), Brij Mohan Satija, A K Gera and Bir Singh (all DVB officials).

The other three, convicted for offences similar to that of Ansal brothers, were also given two-years' jail term each but granted bail. The seven, who were given seven year jail terms, were found guilty under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC. The sessions court had on November 20 convicted all the 12 accused in the Uphaar fire tragedy case.

Three 3 DVB officials had installed a transformer in the cinema building in violation of norms. A spark in this transformer had caused the fire which engulfed the cinema on June 13, 1997.

Two MCD officials S S Sharma and N D Tiwari and Delhi Fire Service staff H S Panwar, who got two year jail terms, were granted bail on a personal and surety bond of Rs 6,000 each.

Reacting to the conviction order, Ansal API spokesperson Kunal Banerji said, "going forward, we will appeal in the High Court. We see the judgement as quite favourable and it has been proved that legally, we weren't wrong at any point of time". Real estate experts see the Uphaar case as a turning point for the Ansal group. The family was one of the first Delhi-based real estate companies to get listed, and was one of the three leading developers of north India, along with DLF and Unitech. However, since then, the company s fortunes have been on a downslide, and at present, even late entrants to the sector, Parsvnath Developers and Omaxe, command a higher market capitalisation than Ansal API. Apart from the Uphaar case, the split in the Ansal family also led to some decline in the late 90s. The Ansal group was split into three companies in 1998, and the flagship venture, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure was retained by the eldest brother Sushil Ansal, with Deepak Ansal taking over Ansal Housing and Gopal Ansal Ansal Buildwell.