Uphaar vedict adjourned till Oct 22

New Delhi, Sep 5: A city court today postponed the verdict in the Uphaar tragedy case, and fixed October 22 for announcement of the date for judgement.Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal postponed the verdict as certain clarifications were needed to pronounce the judgement in the case in which 59 people had lost their lives on June 13, 1997.

She will fix the date for the judgement after ascertaining the facts from the documents available to her.

Twelve accused, including Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal, are facing trial on the charges of causing death by negligence. There were initially 16 accused in the case, of which four died during the pendency of the trial. Fifty-nine people trapped inside the Uphaar cinema hall had died of asphyxia when a fire broke out during the screening of the Hindi movie ''Border'' on June 13, 1997.

An FIR was lodged at the Hauz Khas Police Station.

The investigation was transferred to the Crime Branch and later to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI had filed the chargesheet on November 15, 1997, and the court had admitted it on January 19, 1998.

Following a petition by the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), the Delhi High Court took strong objection to the pendency of the trial and directed the lower court to fix the time frame for completion of the case by August 2007.

UNI