The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that there was no need for Ansal brothers to go to jail in the Uphaar fire tragedy where 59 cinegoers had died of asphyxia in a massive blaze that engulfed the theatre in 1997.
The SC, however, imposed a fine of Rs 60 crore on Ansal brothers.
Industrialists Sushil and Gopal Ansal were also awarded jail sentence for the terms they have already served — Sushil Ansal has spent five months in jail while Gopal has spend over four months.
The three-judge bench of Justices AR Dave, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel asked them to deposit their fines with the Delhi government, which will spend the money on welfare schemes.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) argued for the convicts to complete their sentence in jail. Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, who represented the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), meanwhile, wanted their sentences enhanced.
Five-nine people were killed and more than 10 injured in a fire in the theatre and the resultant stampede on June 13, 1997.
On March 5, 2014, a bench of Justices TS Thakur and Gyan Sudha Mishra had upheld Delhi’s High Court’s conviction of real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal.
The two judges, however, differed on the quantum of sentence — Justice Thakur agreed with the Delhi High Court’s verdict of one-year jail term for both but Justice Mishra considered Sishil Ansal’s age and reduced his sentence to the term already served in jail while enhancing Gopal’s sentence to two years.
During the hearing on Tuesday, 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 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.
“Mr Jethmalani, you cannot argue against the conviction. We can hear you only on quantum of sentence,” the bench said, adding that the previous bench had already upheld the conviction.
“File a review, if you want to challenge it,” the court said.
There was sharp exchange of words between Tulsi and Jethmalani when the former objected to the narration of facts.
“You sit down. I am entitled to raise it again and again,” Jethmalani told Tulsi.
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.