26 years after the tragedy, why Ansal brothers are still not off the hook

New Delhi, Jan 22 On June 13, 1997, halfway through the screening of JP Dutta's movie "Border", a fire broke out in Uphaar cinema located in Green Park in south Delhi, killing 59 people and injuring over 100 in one of the worst fire tragedies in the country.

Many died of suffocation while several were injured during a stampede that ensued amidst the chaos. A probe revealed that the cinema hall authorities had blocked the exit doors to add more seats, leaving hardly any way for the people to escape from the inferno.

Eighteen years after the tragedy, the owners of the ill-fated cinema hall Gopal Ansal and Sushil Ansal were convicted by a Delhi court. In the same year in August 2015, the Supreme Court allowed the Ansals to walk free and asked them to pay a fine of Rs 30 crore each.

However, 24 years after the tragedy, the Ansal brothers were sentenced to 7 years imprisonment in an evidence tampering case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 crore on both.

After 25 years of the tragedy, on July 18, 2022, a Delhi court

granted relief to real estate tycoons Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal, ordering their release from jail by asking them to serve only the sentence already undergone, in a case of tampering with evidence in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire case.

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