HC will hear plea seeking enhancement of Ansals' jail term

New Delhi, Mar 4 (UNI) The Delhi High Court will hear a petition seeking enhancement of the two-year jail sentence awarded to the Ansal brothers in the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy case in which 59 cinegoers had died in 1997.

Justice H R Malhotra today allowed the plea filed by All Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT).

However, he ordered the case to be heard only when the final argument had been heard on the appeals filed by Uphaar owners, Sushil and Gopal Ansal, and 10 others challenging their conviction in the case.

The petition by AVUT called erroneous the sentences by the trial court convicting the Ansal brothers and three others under milder penal provision.

The trial court heard the case under criminal negligence, the AVUT regretted adding, there was enough evidence to sentence them under section 304 part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC, which attracts a maximum 10 years' rigorous term.

A trial court had convicted on December 20, 2007 all the 12 accused under various sections of the IPC for causing death of 59 cinegoers.

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