Uphaar Cinema Case: No jail term for Ansals, Supreme Court rejects plea

New Delhi : Supreme Court has dismissed the plea to reopen the south Delhi's Uphaar theatre case. The families of people died in the incident had filed a plea demanding more jail term for the entrepreneur brothers Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal for negligence, leading to the horrific fire that killed 59.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court claimed that the curative petition filed by the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy has "no merit".

"We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out... Hence, the curative petition is dismissed," the bench said in its order.

The Ansal brothers had walked free from jail in August 2015 with a condition that they will be paying a fine of Rs 30 crore each.

Two years later, the Supreme Court awarded jail term to Sushil Ansal, 78, which he had already served and gave him relief considering his "advanced age-related complications", news agency Press Trust of India reported.

"For ordinary citizens, there is no justice. We showed faith and this was a mistake. It's only for the rich. You should organise public outrage or mount a media campaign to get justice, otherwise, there's no justice for you," said Neelam Krishnamoorthy, who lost her two children in the fire.