The Ansals’s security guards would pass lewd remarks against them whenever they went for the hearing, it was alleged.
New Delhi: “How long will I fight them in court? There have been 108 hearings in the past 15 years. So, I have decided to accept their apologies and put a full stop to it,” pours out the indefatigable Neelam Krishnamurthy, who fought for two decades for the families of 59 persons who were asphyxiated to death in the Uphaar fire tragedy in 1997.
Krishnamurthy shared her thoughts with thetheorist.in while talking about the closure of a case of insulting the modesty of a woman filed by her against two of the accused persons. “It had happened during the hearing of the fire tragedy case in the Patiala House courts in the Capital in 2007,” she said.
The two accused, Deepak Kathpalia and Praveen Sharma, employees of the Ansals, had clicked photos of her and her husband when they came out of the courtroom after hearing of the main case. Besides, the Ansals’s security guards would pass lewd remarks against them whenever they went for the hearing, it was alleged.
“I felt elated when the police took them to the jail after their sentencing,” Krishnamurthy said.
After dilly-dallying for five long years over the language of the apology, the two accused finally decided to tender unconditional apologies to her after Krishnamurthy rejected their draft apologies several times.
Although the Indian Penal Code provides for three years’ imprisonment with fine for the offence, the changes were serious. It violates womanhood and scares women from visiting public places freely.
Meanwhile, Krishnamurthy said she is satisfied with the punishment for Sushil and Gopal Ansal — seven years of imprisonment each for tampering with court documents connected with the fire tragedy case.
“I felt elated when the police took them to the jail after their sentencing,” Krishnamurthy said. They are still in jail as the Delhi High Court has rejected their plea for suspension of the sentence during the hearing of the appeals against the district court judgment which punished him.
The Ansals were earlier sentenced to two years’ imprisonment each in the fire tragedy case. But the Supreme Court released them prematurely with a fine of Rs 30 crore each which will be used for building a trauma centre in the National Capital.