Uphaar fire tragedy: Gopal Ansal fails to get relief from Supreme Court, asked to surrender by March 20

New Delhi: Uphaar theatre owner Gopal Ansal, failed to get any relief from the Supreme Court, as his plea against his jail-term was dismissed by the top court on Wednesday.

However, the real estate baron, who was to surrender today, gets time till March 20 to do so.

Gopal Ansal is the co-accused along with his brother Sushil Ansal in the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case of 1997 in which 59 persons were killed.

A three-judge bench, in a 2:1 majority verdict on February 9, had granted relief to 76-year-old Sushil Ansal considering his "advanced age-related complications" by awarding him jail term already undergone and had asked younger sibling Gopal to surrender in four weeks to serve the remaining jail term.

Gopal had sought the relief that he should not be asked to serve one-year jail term like his elder brother Sushil Ansal in the case of 1997 fire tragedy in which 59 people had died.

The Ansals, who co-owned the Uphaar cinema in south Delhi, were held guilty of "criminal negligence" but escaped jail terms beyond a few months after the top court's 2015 order.

A huge fire broke out at Uphaar when Hindi movie "Border" was being screened on June 13, 1997. Trapped inside, 59 persons died of asphyxia and over 100 were injured in a stampede.