A sense of victory was writ large on the faces of family members of the Uphaar fire tragedy victims after theatre owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal were sent to Tihar jail to serve their two-year sentence.
Despite the conviction of Ansals in November 2007, the happiness of victory eluded family members after 11 years of protracted trial as the high-profile accused did not go to jail as they were granted bail.
"We were then dejected as despite the fact that Ansals were convicted in the case, they did not go to Tihar for a day," Neelam Krishnamurthy, president of the Association of Victims of Uphaar Association, said in Delhi on Thursday.
Krishnamurthy, who had lost both her son and daughter in the tragedy and has been relentlessly pursuing the case for over a decade, expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the events, resulting in Ansals being sent to jail.
"It is very satisfying to see Ansals going behind bars. I was not satisfied when they were convicted and still remained outside," Krishnamurthy, who was with her husband Shekhar and other members of the association, said.
"Salman Khan went behind bars for killing a chinkara while the Ansal brothers were allowed to walk free," she said.
AVUT's lawyer Sultan Singh said that the Ansals would now know the pain of living in jail away from their kith and kin.
"Ansals will now realise the trauma of the victims' kin who have been living without their loved ones," he said.
Naveen Sahni, who lost his daughter Tarika in the fire, also expressed satisfaction over the development and said, "Now, it seems, that justice has been done."
The credit for the punishment to the guilty goes to Neelam and her husband who united families of all the victims to fight for justice, he said.