26 years after deadly Uphaar blaze, court orders desealing of building

After a fire broke out, engulfing the building, on June 13, 1997, an FIR was lodged at the Hauz Khas Police station and the investigation was subsequently transferred to the CBI.

In 2004, the Supreme Court directed the sealing of Uphaar Cinema till the conclusion of the criminal trial. In 2007, the directors of Ansal Theatres and Clubotel, Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal, were convicted.

The photograph of the worst fire tragedy happened on Friday, 13 June 1997 at Uphaar Cinema, Green Park, Delhi, during the 3-to-6 pm screening of the movie Border. (Express archive photo by Praveen Khanna)

“Since the trial has reached finality, absolutely no purpose would be served to keep the property sealed. The application is thereby allowed and property in question be desealed and released to the applicant being the rightful owner,” said Judge Sanjay Garg of the Patiala House Court on Wednesday.

The court also noted that the stakeholders – the CBI, Delhi Police and Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) convener Neelam Krishnamoorthy – had already stated “no objection” to the Supreme Court to allow returning the theatre to its owners.

On April 27 this year, the apex court had allowed the owners of Uphaar Cinema, Ansal Theatres and Clubotels Private Ltd., to move the trial court concerned for the de-sealing of the property.

Stating that they had been dispossessed of Uphaar Cinema since 1997, the owners in their application in the trial court said that “no purpose will be served in depriving the applicant of its property” and that it “was getting wasted”.

59 people died in the fire. (Express archive photo by Praveen Khanna)

The development elicited a sharp response from Krishnamoorthy, who alleged that its owners had “hugely benefited” despite the loss of life in the fire incident.

“The court in its wisdom decides to release Uphaar Cinema. The site is a monument of mass murder and legal battle waged by the victims, proof of a flawed legal system that betrays those seeking justice. Could this not embolden the unscrupulous, to again make it a site of mass murder?” Krishnamoorthy, who lost her two children in the fire, said in a Twitter post.

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The Uphaar cinema tragedy that took place on June 13, 1997, claiming the lives of 59 people and injuring several others was one of the worst fire incidents in Indian history. The interiors of the Uphaar Cinema Hall near Green Park in the capital New Delhi remain the same since the incident. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The fire also injured more than 100 people during the show of Bollywood movie 'Border' on 13th June 1997. The horrific incident that took place in the midst of the evening show screening of ‘Border’ has also gone down the annals of legal history in the country as being the cause behind the filing of the landmark civil compensation case by the families of the victims. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The interiors of the movie theatre is spread over five floors have since been untouched and under investigation. The investigation of the Uphaar fire tragedy brought to light huge amount of corruption and violations of fire code norms including no proper public announcement system, blocked exits and lack of maintenance of the transformers. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The investigations into the Uphaar fire tragedy also revealed that there was large-scale corruption involved in the case wherein the owner of Uphaar cinema, Sushil Ansal and his brother Gopal Ansal were accused of incorporating more number of people inside the hall than allowed. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The fire at the Uphaar theatre broke out at around 4:55 PM, a short-circuit in the transformer situated in the ground floor led to the parking lot being scotched. The toxic gases released from the fire soon spread into the hall, choking the audience. People were trapped inside with insufficient outlets for escaping. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The fire resulted in the The tragedy resulted in the death of 59 people, 23 of whom were children. The families of the victims later formed the The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy’ (AVUT) who filed the landmark Civil compensation case. The most heart wrenching story among the victims’ families were Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, whose two children, 17-year-old Unnati and 13-year-old Ujjwal died in the incident. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The investigation pointed that there were 16 people who were accused of causing death by negligence. The accused included the owner of Uphaar cinema, Sushil Ansal and his brother Gopal Ansal. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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On February 9 , 2017 the Supreme Court sentenced Gopal Ansal to one year in jail for the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case. While Gopal would serve six months of his remaining term, his brother Sushil Ansal, will not be going through more jail term due to his ‘advanced age.’ Supreme Court in its judgement also noted that ‘fine not enough in view of irreparable loss of lives. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

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The owners of Uphaar theatre were also asked to pay a fine of Rs 60 crores to the Delhi government. The cinema authorities, the Delhi Vidyut Board and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were asked to pay compensation to the families of the victims. In August 2015, the Supreme Court further imposed a fine of Rs 30 crore each on the Ansal brothers. (Express Photo Tashi Tobgyal)

She had submitted that the applicant had taken loans from public sector banks against the property which should be returned after the de-sealing.

She also registered a complaint against the applicants for tampering with judicial records, stating that they filed a copy of the Supreme Court’s judgment but deliberately omitted some lines to mislead the court. The counsel for the applicants said it wasn’t their motive to file the copy without the bottom lines on two pages, and that this happened inadvertently.

Rejecting the plea raised by Krishnamoorthy, the court held that “concealment of these lines could not have helped the applicant in any way”.