1997 Uphaar fire: Victims' kin still await closure of case

After a gap of almost 18 years, frustrated families of 59 victims, who had died of asphyxia in the massive fire that had engulfed Uphaar in 1997, are still waiting for the judicial closure of case which is pending before the Supreme Court.
On the eve of 18th anniversary of the tragedy, Neelam Krishnamoorthy, President of Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), said she felt cheated due to the huge delay in the case.
"I feel very cheated. I spent 18 years fighting this battle, a longer period than I spent with my two children who died in the incident. I am very disappointed with the criminal justice system of the country," she said.

She said that they were waiting for the closure of the case pending with apex court bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu.
A three-judge apex court bench is seized of the matter after a bench of justices T S Thakur and Gyan Sudha Mishra (since retired), on March 5, 2014, had held real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal guilty, but had differed on quantum of sentence to be awarded to them.
The bench headed by Justice Thakur had concurred in finding that there was contemptuous disregard of civic laws on the part of Ansals that led to the tragedy as they were more interested in making money than ensuring safety of people.

Justice Thakur had concurred with the 2008 verdict of the Delhi High Court that had awarded one year jail terms to Sushil and Gopal Ansal.

However, Justice Mishra had reduced the jail term to already undergone by Sushil considering his age and enhanced the sentence of Gopal to two years.
Now, the bench headed by the CJI is considering the issue afresh and will decide the case.
The matter had came up for hearing on April 21, but was adjourned at the request of senior advocate L Nageshwar Rao, the counsel for Ansals.
The apex court has been hearing cross-appeals filed by CBI, AVUT and the Ansals challenging the Delhi High Court order.

Fifty-nine people, trapped in the balcony of the theatre, had died of asphyxia following the fire and over 100 people were injured in subsequent stampede on June 13, 1997 during the screening of "Border" movie.
The Ansals had challenged their conviction and had maintained that they were in no way responsible for the incident as the fire mishap they claimed was on account of the DVB transformer.