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New case filed in Uphaar trial

Staff Reporter

Against officials for destruction and disappearance of evidence to save the accused

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police on Wednesday registered a case of destruction and disappearance of evidence in the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case against certain public servants who allegedly framed incorrect records to save the accused from conviction.

Allowing a petition by the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), the High Court had ordered the police to register a First Information Report to probe the removal, tampering and mutilation of several important documents of the case kept in judicial custody in the trial court here in 2003.

Justice R.C. Jain directed the Special Branch of the Delhi police to register the case and appoint an officer not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) to investigate it.

The ACP would conduct the probe speedily and try to conclude it within three months from the date of the order, the order stated, adding that the police would file a status report regarding the progress before August 8, the next date of hearing.

Acting on the court direction, a case under Sections 109, 193, 201, 218, 409 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Tilak Marg police station and the probe was handed over to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch. The removal of and tampering with the documents came to light when the Public Prosecutor in the case in 2003 noticed that several important documents filed along with the charge sheet were missing from the court records or had been tampered with or mutilated by tearing off certain portions of the documents or sprinkling ink on them.

The Prosecutor had brought this to the notice of the court, and the court had then ordered an inquiry into it and later had ordered dismissal of its record-keeper on the basis of the probe report.

However, Neelam Krishnamurthy, the AVUT convenor, kept the matter alive throughout to ensure that the guilty persons were brought to book.

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