The prolonged trial in the Uphaar Fire Tragedy is fast drawing to a close with a sessions court on Thursday announcing the dates for hearing the final arguments in the case even as it scheduled the visit to the cinema hall site on August 19.
Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal has posted the final arguments of the case for three consecutive days from September 26-28 despite one of the 12 accused, BM Satija, moving an application for re-examination of defence witness RC Upadhyay, an ex-Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) staffer.
The application comes after the court had announced the closure of the defence evidence in the case, which had dragged on for almost 10 months, on August 2 this year.
The final arguments would be opened by former Solicitor General of India Harish Salve following CBI's request as he had earlier represented the probe agency during framing of charges in the case.
Meanwhile, six of the accused have moved a joint application before the court requesting permission to be present at the Uphaar site during the inspection.
The accused are Uphaar managers Ajit Choudhary and NS Chopra, gate-keeper Manmohan Unniyal, then DVB officials AK Gera and BM Satija and former Delhi Fire Services officer HS Panwar.
{{/usCountry}}The accused are Uphaar managers Ajit Choudhary and NS Chopra, gate-keeper Manmohan Unniyal, then DVB officials AK Gera and BM Satija and former Delhi Fire Services officer HS Panwar.
{{/usCountry}}The Association for Uphaar Tragedy Victims have also filed a similar application asking the court to allow two of its representatives to accompany the court to the site.
The court has reserved its decision for Friday on all the three applications.
Fifty-nine persons trapped inside the Uphaar Cinema hall died of asphyxia when a fire broke out during the screening of the Hindi movie Border on June 13, 1997.