No more jail for Ansal bros: SC; Fined 60 crore

I have lost faith in the judiciary, says Uphaar fire victim after the verdict

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal to walk free in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case, but they will have to deposit a fine of Rs 30 crore each within three months.

"Mera judiciary se vishwaas uth gaya hain. Aaj ke baad main shayad court ki taraf dekhungi bhi nahin. (I have lost faith in the judiciary. I don't think I will turn towards the courts after this)," says N Krishnamurthy, kin of victim on SC verdict.

Awarding the jail term for a period already undergone by the industrialists, the three-judge bench of Justice AR Dave, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked them to deposit the fine with the Delhi government, which will spend the money on welfare schemes.

While Sushil has already served a jail term of five months, Gopal has spent 142 days behind the bars in the June 13 cinema hall tragedy that killed 59 people.

The bench rejected the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the CBI that probed the case, 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 (AVUT), also said the convicts should be jailed and their punishment should be enhanced.

Fifty-nine people, trapped in the balcony of the theatre, died of asphyxia following the fire and over 100 were injured in the subsequent stampede on June 13, 1997 during the screening of Bollywood film "Border".

Among the victims of the fire tragedy were 23 children. Investigations revealed that one of the fire exits was blocked to accommodate extra seats trapping people inside.

Earlier, a bench of Justice TS Thakur and Gyan Sudha Mishra (since retired) had on March 5, 2014, held Sushil and Gopal Ansal guilty, but differed on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to them. It had concurred in holding that there was "contemptuous disregard" of civic laws on part of the 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, which had awarded one-year jail term to both Sushil and Gopal Ansal.

However, Justice Mishra had reduced the jail term to the period already served in jail by Sushil considering his age and enhanced the sentence of Gopal to two years.

During the hearing on Wednesday, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani began his submission accusing employees of Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) and said they escaped as they were government servants.

On the the morning of the fateful day, a minor fire had broken out in the transformer and the DVB sent some small time 'mistri' instead of experts to fix the problem, he said.

Earlier, the Ansals had challenged their conviction and claimed they were in no way responsible for the tragedy as the fire had been caused by a faulty DVB transformer.

The CBI had filed an appeal challenging the alteration in conviction and reduction of sentence by the Delhi high court on December 19, 2008. The sentence for the Ansals was reduced to one year as against the two-year sentence imposed by the sessions court.

AVUT had also approached the apex court seeking enhancement of sentence to the Ansals.

Two judges of the apex court bench had upheld the conviction, but they had differed on the quantum of sentence. The matter was then referred to a three-judge bench.