New Delhi: Real estate barons Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal on Monday assured the Supreme Court that they would not leave India till it commences hearing on the plea seeking review of the 2015 verdict in the Uphaar fire tragedy case asking them to serve a two-year jail term if they fail to pay Rs 30 crore each as fine.
A bench comprising Justices J S Khehar and N V Ramana considered the submission of Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) that there was a media report about the possibility of Ansals leaving the country in the absence of a restraint order from the apex court.
Initially, the court said it would list the interim plea of AVUT for hearing on Tuesday as a three-judge bench was not available yesterday. However, the bench later asked the Counsel representing Ansals to give an undertaking “on instructions from his clients” that they would not leave India till commencement of hearing on review pleas filed by AVUT and the CBI in the case.
Senior advocate K T S Tulsi, appearing for AVUT, mentioned the plea for urgent hearing, saying “restrain respondents accused Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal from travelling abroad without seeking necessary permission of this court during the pendency of present review petition.”
AVUT, through its President Neelam Krishnamoorthy, who had lost her two teenaged children in the blaze, cited a media report that convicts were “on the verge of fleeing the country”. “Grave prejudice and irreparable loss would be caused to the Applicant/Review Petitioner (AVUT) if the respondents accused, Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal travel abroad, without seeking necessary permission of this court,” the plea said. –PTI
