Uphaar fire horror: SC agrees to 'reconsider' if Ansals should be jailed

January 08, 2016 16:33

The Supreme Court has decided to reconsider whether Gopal and Sushil Ansal, builders of the Uphar cinema in Delhi in which 59 people died in a fire in 1997, should be jailed.

The Ansals escaped being jailed in the 18-year-old gruesome Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy with the Supreme Court asking them to pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each and restricting their jail term to the period already undergone by them.

While Sushil, 76, had spent over five months in prison, 67-year-old Gopal was in jail for over four months immediately after the tragedy.

The bench rejected the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for CBI, that the convicts be sent to jail to serve the remaining jail term. "My instruction from CBI is to press for their custody," Salve said, when the court sought his views.

Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, who represented the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy, also said that the convicts not only be jailed, but rather their punishment should be enhanced.

The Supreme Court's verdict excusing the Ansals from bail has been challenged by the CBI, which investigated the case, as well as a group of those who lost their relatives in the fire.

The organisation demanding justice to the families of the victims of the Uphaar tragedy is headed by Neelam Krishnamurthy, whose young children died at Uphaar; she has campaigned extensively for stiff punishment for the real estate moguls.

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