National

Supreme Court to hear Ansals’ appeal on January 23

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on January 23 the appeals filed by Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal challenging a judgment of the Delhi High Court sentencing them to undergo imprisonment for negligence in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy.

The High Court while upholding the trial court order convicting them under Section 304-A (rash and negligent act) of the IPC, reduced the sentence of imprisonment from two years to one year. The special leave petitions filed by the two brothers are directed against this judgment dated December 19 last.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani mentioned the appeal of Sushil Ansal contending that he was wrongly convicted as he had ceased to be the Director of Uphaar cinema in 1988. He said the appellant had already served five months in prison. He said though it was a bailable offence, the bail was cancelled on September 10 and since then he was in jail.

Mr. Jethmalani said if Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt could be granted bail in a case of serious offence, the Ansal brothers were also entitled to be treated on the same footing. He argued that the tragedy had occurred due to the fire in a transformer installed by the then State-owned Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking and the theatre owners were not responsible for the incident. Senior counsel Sushil Kumar appeared for the other brother.

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