The victims of the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy have re-lodged their plea asking the Supreme Court to modify its order. Concerning the case, the Apex court orders have been rather loose when it came to the case of real estate baron Sushil Ansal, sentencing him to prison for just a brief while.
According to the victims’ association (AVUT), they demand imprisonment of Sushil just like his younger brother Gopal Ansal disregarding his age-related excuses. The SC had on February 9 punished both brothers to one year in jail in connection with the tragedy.
“No evidence or material was ever placed on record, either in the course of the appeals or the review petitions, by Sushil Ansal that suggests that he is having any medical complication(s),” the association has said in its application.
The new application is expected to be heard in the court on Thursday by a bench of judges headed by Ranjan Gogoi. The court will also hear Gopal’s plea which asks the court to keep him from being jailed, on the same grounds as his brother. So far the top court has not given him any relief.
Notably, Gopal has spent a little over four months in jail and as per court’s order. He has to surrender by March 9 to serve the remaining seven months. The victims said both Sushil and Gopal are healthy and be sent to jail to serve the remaining sentence. They claim Sushil did not show any evidence regarding his medical complications or whether he suffered from age-related problems.
AVUT said the Ansal brothers were “healthy and in a good condition to travel abroad, as they have admittedly done frequently. This further suggests that they are not suffering from any medical complications to warrant any indulgence from this court particularly after being convicted of such heinous crime”.
