Uphaar case: Victims’ body AVUT moves SC, wants Sushil Ansal in jail

The Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) has approached the Supreme Court to contend that Sushil Ansal should be jailed just like his younger brother Gopal Ansal and should not be given any benefit due to his age-related complications

The victims of the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy filed a fresh application asking the Supreme Court to modify its order that took a lenient approach in the case of real estate baron Sushil Ansal and sentenced him to just the period he has already spent in jail.

Relatives of Uphaar tragedy victims pay tribute to the departed souls, at the memorial set up near the cinema hall. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

The victims’ association (AVUT) want he should be jailed just like his younger brother Gopal Ansal and should not be given any benefit due to his age-related complications. The SC had on February 9 punished both brothers to one year of jail in connection with the tragedy.

Read: Uphaar cinema fire: SC jails Gopal Ansal for a year, asks him to surrender

The application is likely to be heard on Thursday by a special bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which will also take up Gopal’s application in which he has asked the court to spare him jail on the same ground as it did in Sushil’s case.

Gopal has spent a little over four months in jail and as per the top court’s order he has to surrender by March 9 to serve the remaining seven months. So far the top court has not given him any relief.

The victims said both Sushil and Gopal are healthy and be sent to jail to serve the remaining sentence. They claim Sushil did not show any evidence regarding his medical complications or whether he suffered from age-related problems.

“No evidence or material was ever placed on record, either in the course of the appeals or the review petitions, by Sushil Ansal that suggests that he is having any medical complication(s),” the association has said in its application. Even in the course of submissions, no such medical evidence was placed by him before this court, they said.

Read:In pics | Uphaar cinema fire: The tragedy that claimed 59 lives

AVUT said the Ansal brothers were “healthy and in a good condition to travel abroad, as they have admittedly done frequently. This further suggests that they are not suffering from any medical complications to warrant any indulgence from this court particularly after being convicted of such heinous crime”.