MCD clerk identifies accused in Uphaar case

new delhi: identifying accused shyam sunder sharma in the court, prosecution's witness veer bhaan setia - an mcd head clerk - said sharma was the administration officer who signed the no-objection certificate for renewal of uphaar cinema's licence for the year 1995-96. presently an mcd inspector in karol bagh house tax division, setia also identified another accused k l malhotra in the court and said malhotra had come personally to receive the original of the noc.``the original was received by him (malhotra) for transmission to dcp, licensing (purportedly for completion of formalities),'' setia told the court. ``shayam sunder sharma is present in the court...i can also identify k l sharma who is present in the court,'' setia said, pointing at the accused persons. the recording of testimonies of witnesses resumed in the court on monday after july 25, when the last witnesses were examined. these witnesses were mostly survivors of uphaar cinema tragedy that killed 59 persons and injured as many as 104 on june 13, 1997. the people were watching hindi movie border when a fire broke out in the basement transformer. deposing as prosecution witness, setia told the court that he was an upper division clerk posted at the licensing department of mcd. ``this letter of noc was issued by our department for the year 1995-96, for the renewal of annual cinematograph licence for the uphaar cinema. at that time i was discharging the duty of licensing inspector for processing the licensing application for the grant of trade licence,'' setia told additional sessions judge mamta sehgal. the accused in the case are: pwd engineer s n dandona; builders sushil ansal and gopal ansal; cinema hall director r m puri; four managers k l malhotra, r k sharma, n s chopra and ajit chaudhary; a k ghera, b m satija and beer singh of dvb; n d tiwari and shyam sunder of mcd; h s panwar and surinder dutt of delhi fire service and the balcony usher manmohan uniyal.