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

The Supreme Court on Thursday sent real estate baron Gopal Ansal to jail for a year as it partially reviewed its order in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire tragedy in Delhi that left 59 people dead.

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered one year in jail for city-based builder Gopal Ansal who with his elder brother, Sushil, owned a south Delhi cinema hall where a fire killed 59 people 20 years ago.

A fire broke out in south Delhi's Uphaar Cinema on June 13, 1997. (S Burmaula/HT File Photo)

Reviewing its 2015 judgment in which the Ansal brothers had been handed a fine of Rs 30 crore each, the court, in a 2:1 verdict, said that the jail term would act as a deterrent and serve the larger public interest. It also upheld the fines imposed on the Ansals. The money has already been paid and is lying with the court’s registry.

Gopal Ansal has four weeks to surrender.

The court, however, allowed Sushil,76, to stay out of jail because of his age. He has already served a reduced sentence of five months.

“Gravity of the offence and the illegal gains made by them (Ansals) is such that no fine would be excessive for the irreparable loss caused,” the bench said, upholding the Rs 60 crore fine.

The Ansals were found guilty of negligence but were not jailed, with the court treating the time spent by them behind bars as sentence served.

While Sushil spent five months in jail. Gopal, 68, was behind bars for four months immediately after the June 13, 1997 tragedy.

The owners, an investigation had found, added extra seats that blocked one of the exits, preventing the victims –- 23 of them minors -- from escaping the burning hall after a fire broke out in the transformer room. Most of the victims were asphyxiated.

In its review plea, AVUT said the apex court judgment “bestows an unwarranted leniency on convicts whose conviction in the most heinous of offences has been upheld by all courts, including this court and sentences imposed on them have been substituted with fine without assigning any reason”.

AVUT’s Neelam Krishnamurthy, who has emerged as the face of the families’ long fight for justice, was unhappy with Thursday’s verdict.

“What’s the point in going to court if one of them escapes with only a year of imprisonment and other one is let off?” asked Neelam Krishnamurthy of the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT). Her 17-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son were among the 23 minors killed in the fire on June 13, 1997. The last legal recourse left for the contesting parties is to file a curative petition.