The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi police file affidavit in Uphaar fire case

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Tuesday, Jan 02, 2007
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Delhi police file affidavit in Uphaar fire case

Staff Reporter

`A worker of the accused helped court clerks get loans, jobs'

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police have informed the court conducting trial of the Uphaar fire tragedy case here that its clerk facing prosecution for allegedly removing and tampering with certain documents of the case kept in its custody has revealed to them that an employee of the fire tragedy case accused had helped him in getting a home loan from a private bank.

As many as 59 cinemagoers had lost their lives in the devastating Uphaar Cinema fire on June 13, 1997.

In an affidavit, the Investigating Officer of the evidence tampering case submitted that when he sought the relevant documents from the said bank, he was informed that they had been returned to the customer.

Therefore, the recommendation letter allegedly sent by the employee of the fire tragedy case accused could not be made available to the police, the affidavit said.

The Investigating Officer further stated that the accused court clerk, Dinesh Chandra Sharma, further told him during interrogation that another employee of the same court had got a job for one of his relatives in a school run by the fire tragedy case accused.

Letter missing

When this fact was probed, it was found that the recommendation letter allegedly written by the fire tragedy case accused to the school was missing from the records, the investigating officer added.

The accused court clerk further told him that after his dismissal from service he got a job as supervisor in A-Plus security agency on the recommendation of another employee of the fire tragedy case accused, the investigating officer submitted.

The trial court had in December last week cancelled the bail of Sharma.

The Economic Offences Wing of the city police had arrested him in November last year following registration of a case on a Delhi High Court direction on a petition by Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) president Neelam Krishnamurthy.

Tampering with papers

The removal and tampering with papers came to light when the Public Prosecutor in the case had in 2003 noticed that several important documents filed along with the charge sheet were missing from the court record of the case or had been tampered with or mutilated by tearing off certain portions or sprinkling ink on them.

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

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