New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismisses real estate baron Gopal Ansal's plea against his jail term in Uphaar fire tragedy case.
Gopal Ansal, who was supposed to surrender today, gets time till March 20 to do so.
Earlier, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, in a 2:1 majority verdict on February 9, had granted relief to 76-year-old Sushil Ansal considering his advanced age-related complications by awarding him jail term already undergone and had asked younger sibling Gopal to surrender in four weeks to serve the remaining jail term.
Besides this, the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) has moved the apex court seeking modification of the order sentencing Sushil Ansal to the period already undergone by him in jail in the case relating to the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy that had killed 59 people on June 13, 1997.
Gopal, who was in jail earlier for around four-and-a-half months, has sought the relief on the ground of parity claiming that he was 69-year-old and would suffer irreparable damage to his health if sent to prison.
The plea has said "his body and health are more brittle than that of his elder brother".
In its application, Neelam Krishnamoorthy-led AVUT has said both Sushil and Gopal Ansal are healthy and should be sent to jail to serve the remaining sentence in the case.
"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 victims' have also opposed Gopal Ansal's plea saying the review pleas of CBI and AVUT have already been decided and "there cannot be a review of the review judgement".
59 persons had died in the Uphaar cinema during the screening of Hindi movie 'Border' on June 13, 1997.
(With PTI inputs)
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