Uphaar tragedy: Ansal brothers out of jail

New Delhi, Jan 30: Ansal brothers, Sushil and Gopal who were convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment in the Upahaar fire tragedy case have been granted bail by the Supreme Court on Friday, Jan 30.

Justice S B Sinha issued notices on the cross appeals filed by the Ansals and Association of the Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy the one year sentence imposed on the accused by the Delhi High Court.

Ansal brothers has been released on the personal bond of Rs 10,000 each, the bench headed by Sinha ordered. Earlier, Ansals had challenged the sentence imposed by the High Court. However, the victim's association had sought enhancement of the punishment on the ground that the offence fell under the purview of section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

The High Court had earlier reduced the sentence to one year imprisonment term from the two years imposed by the Sessions Court.

It was during the matinee show on the first day of the release of Hindi movie, Border, on Friday, June 13, 1997 that a fire started by a faulty transformer snuffed out the lives of 59 people who had gone to the cinema hall for some entertainment.

Devastated by the man-made tragedy, the 28 families came together to share their grief and formed the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) to fight against every act of injustice as also against the apathetic attitude of the civic authorities.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)