No jail for Ansals: CBI, Uphaar tragedy victims' kin file review petition in SC

The CBI and the kin of victims of the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on Friday.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation and the kin of victims of the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case filed a review petition in the Supreme Court on Friday.

According to reports, through its petition, the central probe agency had asked the Supreme Court to review its earlier verdict which ordered no jail term for Ansals - Gopal and Sunil.

On August 20, the Supreme Court had dismissed the CBI's appeal to argue the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case further and directed it to file a review petition.

"It will not be proper. We have already passed the order," a three-judge bench headed by Justice AR Dave said when senior advocate Harish Salve, who has been representing CBI in this case, sought 15 more minutes to argue some of the points in the matter.

The moves came a day after the apex court denied a jail term for the Ansal brothers – Sushil and Gopal - but directed them to pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each within a three months to the Delhi government.

Overturning the pleas of CBI and the victims’ association, a three-judge bench of justices AR Dave, Kurian Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel on Wednesday asked Sushil and Gopal Ansal to pay the total fine of Rs 60 crore in three months and deposit it with the Delhi government, which in turn will spend the money on welfare schemes.

While Sushil had spent over five months in prison, Gopal was in jail for over four months immediately after the tragedy.

The bench rejected the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for CBI, that the convicts be sent to jail to serve the remaining jail term.

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

With PTI inputs