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SC rejects Uphaar fire tragedy victims’ plea to enhance jail term for Ansal brothers
The Uphaar theatre in the posh Green Park area was screening Bollywood film “Border” and several families were there to catch the movie featuring Sunny Deol on its release day - June 13, 1997 - but the 3 pm show turned into mayhem after a massive blaze broke out.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition by families of 59 people who died in a fire at Uphaar cinema in 1997. The curative petition filed against the top court’s verdict wanted the judges to enhance the jail term for real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal.
The top court’s 2015 verdict had effectively let off the brothers with a fine of ₹30 crore each.
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.
Neelam Krishnamurthy, who founded the Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) and has been the face of their long fight for justice, had filed the curative petition.
She and husband Shekhar Krishnamurthy had lost their 17-year daughter and 13-year-old son in the fire that broke out in the south Delhi cinema hall during the screening of the Sunny Deol-starrer ‘Border’ on its release on 13 June 1997. The 3 pm show turned into mayhem.
AVUT had petitioned that there was no reason for granting relief to the real estate barons on account of their age when there were many aged criminals who are behind bars in different cases.
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.
