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HC notices CBI over Uphaar Cinema Complex
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SPECIALCORRESPONDENT on 03 April, 2008 03:37:00
 
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today issued notice to Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) and Delhi government, over the rights of Uphaar Cinema
complex impounded by the Court, after the Uphaar cinema owners moved the court
seeking permission to put the hall to productive use. Justice H R Malhotra today
admitted the petition and sought reply by CBI till April 24, 2008 the next date
of hearing.
Sushil Ansal, the owner of the cinema and a prime convict of the tragedy filed
the petition seeking rights to sell the property of Uphaar cinema complex in
order to compensate the victims.
Earlier, the apex court had refused to interfere into the matter and asked
Ansal to first appeal before the High Court under which, the case is subjugate.
Both Sushil and Gopal Ansal were convicted by trial court in 2007 and were
released on bail. According to the trial court judgment, Ansals brothers have to
pay compensation to the victims? family.
Over the same, Ansal brothers expressed that they are undergoing through a
financial crises and in order to pay the compensation, and that they have to
sell the Cinema Complex. “We have been deprived of running our business by
putting the property to any productive use,” they contended and said the
revenue collected from the hall would contribute to the government exchequer.
The Uphaar cinema hall was sealed following a fire in 1997 that killed 59
people.
Further, theatre owners Sushil Ansal and his brother Gopal Ansal, who were
sentenced to two years in jail by the trial court for causing death due to
negligence, appealed in their application that the property should be handed
over to them as the trial in the fire tragedy case was over.