It was a tragic accident caused by fire in the DVB transformer
Mr. Prem Kumar, Advocate today started the arguments on behalf of Mr. Gopal Ansal. Commencing his arguments, he contended that the Courts should not be influenced with sentiments and emotions, howsoever horrible the offence may be. All possible chances of innocent men being convicted have to be completely ruled out. He argued that in criminal matters, the Judges should not be swayed away by the sentiments and emotions rather they should confine themselves to the facts and evidence on record of the case. In support of his arguments, he relied upon the Judgment of the Supreme Court titled as State V/s Laxman Kumar.
Thereafter, Mr. Prem Kumar argued that to constitute an offence U/s 304A IPC, there should be a gross negligence that is negligence of a very high degree. In this connection, he placed reliance upon the speech of Lord Maclaulay which has been accepted in the recent judgment of the Supreme Court titled as Jacob Mathew V/s. State of Punjab. It is significant to point out that Lord Macaulay was the framer of Indian Penal Code.
Mr. Prem Kumar argued that there is absolutely no evidence to show any negligence on the part of Ex-Director Mr. Sushil Ansal and Mr. Gopal Ansal. It was a case of sheer accident. All the Rules and regulations regarding placements of seats, gangways, Exit doors were as approved by the various concerned authorities. All requisites fire safety installations and requirements were in place and functional and were duly approved in writing by the fire department. Unfortunately, the cause of fire was the poor maintenance of DVB transformers. The burning of the transformer oil generated lot of smoke and toxic gases which resulting in due to death by asphyxia. The cinema was running under a valid permit/ license.
