Additional district and sessions judge in-charge of Patiala house courts recently referred the case to additional sessions judge S C Mittal, who fixed March 8 for arguments by CBI on the charges levelled against the accused and reply by the defence.

The case was committed to sessions trial by Metropolitan Magistrate Brijesh Sethi on January 4 after taking cognizance of the chargesheet against the accused, including cinema house owners Sushil Ansal, his brother Gopal Ansal, its director R M Puri, four managers and eight Delhi government officials.

A fire, which broke out in the theatre during the screening of Border on June 13, 1997, had claimed 59 lives and left over 100 injured.

The managers chargesheeted are K L Malhotra, R K Sharma, NS Chopra and Ajit Chaudhary while the government officials include A K Ghera, B M Satija and Beer Singh of Delhi Vidyut Board, N D Tiwari and Shayam Sunder of MCD, S N Dandona of PWD and H S Panwar and Surinder Dutt of Delhi fire service.