20 years after Uphaar, SC gives one-year jail to Gopal Ansal

Nearly 20 years after a raging fire at the Uphaar cinema in Delhi killed 59 persons, the Supreme Court on Thursday awarded real estate baron Gopal Ansal, one of the theatre owners, one year in jail.

The apex court said since Gopal Ansal, 69, did not suffer any age-related complications, as was the case with Sushil Ansal, 77, there could be no principle of parity and he must spend one year in prison. The court gave Gopal Ansal four weeks to surrender to undergo the sentence.

Since Gopal Ansal has already been in jail for four months and 29 days, he will serve the remaining sentence of over seven months, his counsel Salman Khurshid said.

Co-accused Sushil Ansal was, however, let off with the sentence he has already served because of his old age and ailments.

The Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), which fought a protracted legal battle against the Ansal brothers, said the verdict against Gopal Ansal had come as a "big disappointment".

Its members said they have "lost hope" in the judiciary of the country.

"We are very disappointed; justice is not done. We didn't expect just one-year punishment by the Supreme Court. We have been fighting for long and now we have lost hope in the judicial system of our country," Neelam Krishnamoorthy, head of AVUT, told IANS.

The Ansals, who co-owned the Uphaar cinema in south Delhi, were earlier held guilty of "criminal negligence" but escaped jail terms beyond a few months after the top court's 2015 order.

On June 13, 1997, a huge fire broke out when Hindi movie "Border" was being screened at the cinema hall. Trapped inside, 59 persons died of asphyxia while over 100 were injured in a stampede.

On Thursday, almost 20 years after the tragedy, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Kurian Joseph by a 2:1 majority verdict partially modified the August 19, 2015, order that had let off the Ansals by directing them to pay Rs 30 crore each, along with the jail sentence already served. Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, however, reiterated the 2015 judgment.

The court pronounced the verdict on pleas seeking a review of its 2015 order.

On Thursday, a teary-eyed Krishnamoorthy of AVUT regretted approaching the courts instead of picking up the gun to avenge the death of her two children.

Gopal Ansal's counsel Khurshid expressed sorrow, remorse and regret over the tragedy on behalf of the Ansal brothers.

The August 19, 2015, verdict was delivered by a bench of Justice Anil R. Dave (since retired), Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel.

The matter relating to the quantum of punishment was referred to the three-judge bench following the March 5, 2014, split verdict by a bench of then Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra (both have since retired).

Justice Thakur and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, while agreeing with the conviction, had differed on the quantum of punishment.

While Justice Thakur had sentenced the Ansals to one year imprisonment, Justice Misra enhanced it to two years but imposed a fine of Rs 50 crore each in lieu of the second year.

Justice Misra had said that Rs 100 crore that the Ansal brothers were asked to pay would be used for setting up a trauma centre in Delhi's Dwarka area.

The March 5, 2014, split verdict on the quantum of punishment had come on an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation and AVUT against the December 19, 2008, Delhi High Court judgment by which the two-year sentence awarded to each of the Ansal brothers by the trial court was reduced to one year each.

The trial court on November 20, 2007, had convicted the Ansals and others under Section 403 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to two years imprisonment each.

--IANS

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