CBI seeks enhanced punishment for Ansals :Uphaar case

NEW DELHI: The CBI on Monday told the Supreme Court that it supports the demand for enhanced punishment for the Ansal brothers sentenced to two years RI in the Uphaar cinema tragedy which claimed 59 lives.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the investigating agency, told a bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi that the Ansal brothers Sushil and Gopal who owned the theatre deserved to be convicted for offences under Section 304 (culpabale homicide not amounting to murder) which carries a maximum punishment of upto life imprisonment.

He submitted that the trial court in November last year wrongly convicted the Ansal brothers under Section 304 A (causing death by rash and negligent act) and awarded them a two years imprisonment.

The CBI told the apex court that the Uphaar cinema tragedy was not merely a fire accident as the Ansals were illegally running a carpet showroom within the theatre premises which in turn had precipitated the fire.

Further, he said, instead of having seven to eight exit doors there was only one exit door available to cinegoers on the fateful day, trapping the 59 victims in the inferno and killing them due to asphyxiation.

An office was also being run illegally on the terrace adjoining the balcony which made the victims' escape difficult, the CBI counsel said.

The counsel submitted that the trial court failed to consider these alleged illegal activities of the Ansal brothers and had let them off lightly with a two year sentence under Section 304 A.