Accepting the plea of former IPS officer Amod Kanth, Patiala house court metropolitan magistrate (MM) Sanjeev Kumar, on Friday exempted from his personal appearance before this court till September 29.
The court accepted the exemption plea of Kanth, after hearing from his lawyer R.S. Malik, that the accused had suffered a fracture in his left ankle on June 16 and had been advised complete bed rest.
Mr Malik further said that Kanth needs four weeks time in order to recover from it. On August 11, the court had rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe report giving Kanth a clean chit in the fire tragedy case, and asked him to appear for hearings.
Directing the accused, Kanth, to appear before the court on September 30, the court said, “There are enough grounds to prosecute Kanth under Section 304-A (causing death by rash and negligent act), Section 337 (causing hurt) and Section 338 (causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the Cinematograph Act.”
Earlier, the CBI had filed a report after probing Kanth’s role and favoured his non-prosecution.
Senior criminal lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi, lawyer for the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), had alleged that Kanth, the former deputy commissioner of Delhi police (licensing), had allegedly allowed extra seats in Uphaar cinema hall’s balcony which allegedly led to closure of exit gates, leading to the death of 59 people who were watching the Hindi film Border.
The Central Bureau of Investigation report stated that there was no witness to state that it was Kanth who had allowed the extra seats in the Uphaar theatre for any consideration.