A total of 59 people had died in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire
In a huge relief for the Ansal brothers, the Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a curative petition filed by an association of the victims of the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy that left 59 people dead. Sushil and Gopal Ansal need not go back to prison now.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde, and Justices N V Ramana and Arun Mishra considered the curative plea by the Association for Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) in-chamber and dismissed it. “We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out… Hence, the curative petition is dismissed,” the bench said in its order.
In 2007, a trial court had convicted all 12 accused, including Sushil and Gopal Ansal, in the case and awarded them two years imprisonment. In 2008, the Delhi High Court upheld the verdict but reduced the sentence from two years to one year. In 2017, the Supreme Court had asked Gopal to undergo the remaining one-year jail term in the case. In view of age-related complications, his elder brother Sushil got relief from incarceration, keeping in mind the prison term already served by him.
Over 100 people were injured in the ensuing stampede.
The AVUT, through its president Neelam Krishnamoorthy, had sought reconsideration of the verdict by filing the curative plea. The pleas were on Thursday rejected by the apex court.
The fire broke out on June 13, 1997
The fire had broken out during the screening of Hindi film “Border” on June 13, 1997. In one of the worst fire accidents in Indian history, a blaze broke out in Delhi’s Uphaar Cinema, halfway through the screening of Hindi film “Border” on June 13, 1997. Fifty-nine people had died of asphyxia, while more than 100 were injured in the ensuing stampede.
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