Uphaar victims’ relatives disappointed at verdict, say all roads to justice closed

Supreme Court Thursday rejected a curative petition seeking enhanced punishment for Sushil and Gopal Ansal

NEW DELHI: On June 13, 1997, 59 people suffocated to death while watching a movie in south Delhi’s Uphaar Cinema. Twentythree years later, the long wait for justice ended in disappointment for the family members for the victims of one of the deadliest fires in the capital.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a curative petition filed by family members of the victims, seeking enhanced punishment for Sushil and Gopal Ansal, owners of the theatre.

Calling it a “black day”, Neelam Krishnamoorthy, who founded the Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) and has been the face of their long fight for justice, said: “I am shattered. This judgement today proved that justice in India is not for common people. It is a luxury that is reserved for the rich and the powerful.”

Krishnamoorthy, who had filed the curative petition, said, “Out of 59 people who lost their lives in the blaze, 23 were children and the youngest was a month-old infant. Do the lives of these children mean nothing?”

Krishnamoorthy had lost two of her children, a 17-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son, in the fire.

Recalling the tragedy, Naveen Sahni, who lost his daughter, said families such as his fought this legal battle for over two decades so that such an incident is not repeated in the future. Sahni’s daughter Tarika was engaged and due to get married.

“The initial sentence of two years itself was lenient. This case was supposed to have created a deterrent for the future generations, to make a clear point that lives cannot be taken for granted,” Sahni said.

On the day of the fire, a spark in a Delhi Vidyut Board (Dvb)transformer installed in the ground floor car parking had triggered a fire at 6.55am. The minor blaze was controlled at 7.25am. After around 10 hours of the first incident, at 4.55pm, another blaze broke out, which ended up killing 59 people and injuring 103.

Along with the owners of the theatre, 10 others were found guilty in the case. While the Ansals were sentenced for two years’ imprisonment for blocking key exit points of the hall by putting extra seats, the managers of the property —Radha Kishan Sharma, Nirmal Singh Chopra, Ajit Choudhary and Manmohan Unniyal —were convicted by the court for neglecting fire safety measures and closing air conditioning vents and ventilation outlets.

In the course of the trial, jarring violations by government agencies were noticed. Officials from DVB, the municipal agency and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) were found guilty of overlooking safety norms and providing licences without proper inspections.

During the long legal battle, several of the convicted died. Disappointed by Thursday’s judgment Krishnamoorthy said Uphaar victim families had now exhausted all legal options. However, they are still banking on a case of “tampering with evidence” in the lower court, which is due for hearing on Saturday.

“It feels everything we did for all these years has ended in nothing. If the judiciary has to act in this country, it has to be based on public outrage or media campaigns,” she said.

The Ansal brothers could not be reached for a comment.