Does the Delhi Assembly have a sinister past? Was there once a room on the premises where prisoners were executed during the British era?
Not likely, say historians.
Built in 1912, the Delhi Assembly premises was originally meant to house the Imperial Legislative Council. Designed by British architect E Montague Thomas and constructed under the supervision of contractor Faqir Chand, it was completed in just eight months. It later served as the Central Legislative Assembly after 1919.
“The Imperial Legislative Council used to meet here before the newly constructed Parliament House of India in New Delhi (Sansad Bhawan) was inaugurated on January 18, 1927,” author Sohail Hashmi said. “And it is unlikely that the Legislative Council functioned as the Judge and executioner and put people to death on a regular basis on its own premises.”
“I would think that the story of a phansi-ghar at the present-day Delhi Assembly is nothing more than a little fanciful fable,” he added.
The question of whether two rooms in the Assembly building were a phansi-ghar (execution room) and the existence of a tunnel connecting the Assembly to the Red Fort were hotly debated in the House on the second and third day of the Monsoon Session. Wednesday saw former CM and AAP leader Atishi and other MLAs being marshalled out.
According to historian Swapna Liddle, such a phansi ghar is highly unlikely. “This building was built as a Secretariat. Nobody builds a phansi-ghar in such a building,” she said, also doubting the claims that there is a tunnel below the Assembly leading to the Red Fort. “I am not familiar with any accounts or evidence that support this claim,” Liddle said.
Hashmi also doubts the claims of a tunnel due to a lack of reason for building it. “This was built by the British, and they were ruling over India, and there was no threat of revolt. Why would they build a tunnel here?”
He also raises logistical questions: “A tunnel is built for quick getaways, so it should have the necessary height for a person to ride a horse, which is clearly not the case…”
An official from the Delhi Archaeology department told The Indian Express it has neither looked into the claims of the existence of a phansi-ghar or a tunnel, nor have they been asked by any government.
To dispel claims, Speaker Vijender Gupta led a guided tour of the premises on Wednesday.
“There is no history of any such space. There was never an execution room here,” Gupta said. These rooms, he added, were in fact designed to deliver tiffin boxes to members and formed part of the original building plan.
During the tour, Gupta highlighted the Assembly building’s historical importance, tracing its origins to the early 20th Century when Delhi was declared the new capital of British India.
He said the structure was built in 1912 — following the announcement at the 1911 Coronation Durbar to shift the capital from Calcutta — and was originally meant to house the Imperial Legislative Council under the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.
Original architectural drawings of the structure are still preserved in the National Archives of India, Gupta said.
War of words continues
Citing a map from 2011 when the Assembly building was constructed, Gupta on Tuesday had said that the previous AAP government under the then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2022 falsely claimed that the premises had a “phansi-ghar” and then renovated it.
BJP Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh had also said it was the then Speaker, Ram Niwas Goel, who had called the room an “execution room”.
Atishi had hit back, saying the BJP government was avoiding core issues and wasting the taxpayers’ money by discussing such matters in the House.
On Wednesday, as the war of words continued, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta called these claims a gross distortion of history, an insult to national martyrs, and a betrayal of public trust.
BJP Minister Kapil Mishra accused the previous AAP government of “tampering with history” by projecting a false narrative.
AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha, however, defended the room’s historical significance, arguing that many such execution sites were never officially recorded.
Goel, however, stood by his claims about the phansi-ghar and tunnel and claimed he had asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) thrice to examine the structures, but to no avail. “Vijender Gupta, the current Speaker, was then Leader of Opposition. Why did he not question it then?… Also, the entire Assembly was single-storeyed, but these structures are three-storeyed. We also found some cloth shoes, 40-50 glass bullets, and some rope. What explains these?” asked Goel, adding that the building was used as a court between 1926, when the Parliament was shifted to the old Lok Sabha building, and 1947.
Vijender Gupta, meanwhile, emphasised the importance of historical accuracy and institutional responsibility in portraying heritage structures, especially those central to democratic functioning. “Only through truthful representation can future generations engage with our history meaningfully, free from distortion or myth,” he said.
