New Delhi:
Family members of the victims of Uphaar fire tragedy on Friday expressed shock and anguish over the Delhi High Court's decision to reduce the sentence awarded to the cinema hall owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal from two years to one year.
",The judgement is ridiculous. The verdict is a travesty of justice. People should not come to court if this is the type of judgement one gets. We spent 11-and-half-years.I particularly attended the court proceedings for 4,206 days and finally got nothing,", Neelam Krishnamurthy, Convenor of
Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), said immediately after the verdict.
",It gives the feeling of not to come to courts for justice,", said Krishnamurthy, who lost her teenaged son and daughter in the tragedy.
",Let the accused persons stay without their children, they will realise the pain of the parents. This is complete waste of time,", she said.
Over a dozen family members of the victim, who were present in the court expressed anguish and ",disappointment", over the High Court's decision saying ",we are certainly going to challenge verdict of the High Court",.
Rita Sahni, who lost her young daughter, said, ",Our hope is shattered. No common man can expect justice from the court. Only those who have money and power can get justice.",
Her husband Naveen Sahni said he will go through the judgement and find out the lacuna and then decide to appeal in the Supreme Court.
R S Rahi, who lost his 22-year-old son, said, ",We fail to understand how people from the high society commit an offence and go scot-free.",
Krishnamurthy echoed the same view and said the sentence of the Ansal brothers has been brought down on the basis of good social background and old age.
",If that is the factor then I am quite shocked. Most of the jailed people then should be sent out because lots of them are old people. If you are socially well-off, it definitely does not give you a right to kill other people's children,", she said and went on to comment on the recent terror attacks in Mumbai where about 285 people lost their lives.
",That means people killed at Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) will have no value and people killed at Taj Mahal hotel will have a lot of value. Probably that common men who died in Uphaar, the value of their lives is only six days.
This is very very disheartening,", she further said.