New Delhi: The Supreme Court rejected a petition by the families of those who died in a fire at south Delhi’s Uphaar theatre in 1997 to reopen the case. The curative petition filed by the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy. The association wanted the judges to enhance the jail term for real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal.
In a 2017 review verdict, a three-judge bench sent Gopal Ansal to jail for one year but allowed his elder brother Sushil Ansal to stay out of jail because of his age. Sushil Ansal had already served a reduced sentence of five months.
Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy case: Supreme Court dismisses the curative petitions filed by the victims of 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy case. pic.twitter.com/RZ45M1Lzek
— ANI (@ANI) February 20, 2020
The Ansal brothers were freed from jail in August 2015 on the condition that they pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each.
The real estate barons were implicated in the fire at their cinema hall after a probe found that extra seats that blocked one of the exits, prevented the victims –- 23 of them were minors — from escaping the burning hall after a fire broke out in the transformer room. Most of the victims were asphyxiated.
AVUT had asked the judges to hear the curative petition in open court. But a bench led by Chief Justice SA Bobde rejected this request. In its verdict released later, the bench said the petitioners had not made out a case to revisit the judgment. “Hence, the Curative Petitions are dismissed,” the Supreme Court said.
