After 18 years of legal battle by the next of kin of victims of the gruesome fire in Uphaar cinema in the capital, the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed real estate magnates Gopal and Sushil Ansal to walk free after asking them to pay a fine of Rs. 60 crore for negligence leading to the death of 59 people.
The Ansals have been given three months to pay the fine to the Delhi government for building a trauma centre. The court’s decision led to angry reactions from victims’ families who said “the rich walk free after paying a fine for killing people”. The cinema hall in Green Park became a death trap in 1997 during the screening of the blockbuster movie Border. Smoke from a fire inside the theatre asphyxiated the audience as extra seats blocked exit routes. More than a hundred people were injured in the ensuing stampede inside the blacked-out theatre.
The decision by a three-judge Bench, led by Justice Anil R. Dave and including Justices Kurian Joseph and A.K. Goel, came after the case was repeatedly adjourned for over 17 months.
On March 5 last year, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court confirmed that the Ansals were guilty of negligence and were “only interested in making money”, but disagreed on how much time the duo should spend in prison. Sushil (77) and Gopal Ansal (67) have been in jail for a few months in connection with the case.
While Justice Thakur agreed with the Delhi High Court that they should undergo a year behind bars, Justice Misra imposed a fine of Rs. 100 crore on the Ansals to build a trauma-care centre.
The question of sentence was then referred to this three-judge Bench.
Wednesday’s order comes as a blow to the efforts by the CBI and the families of victims to get jail time for Ansals. Members of the Association for Victims of Uphaar Tragedy said the Rs. 60-crore fine was a shocking act of scaling down by the Supreme Court from its earlier decisions in the Uphaar case.
Also read: >Closure evades Uphaar kin
