The Uphaar Cinema fire, one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history,[1] occurred on Friday, June 13, 1997 at Uphaar Cinema, Green Park, Delhi, during the premiere screening of Border, a patriotic Hindi movie. 59 people died and 103 were seriously injured in the subsequent stampede; most of the victims were trapped on the balcony and were asphyxiated as they tried to reach dimly marked exits to escape the smoke and fire,[2] and found the doors locked.[3]
The fire broke out at 5:10 pm, after the transformer at the parking level burst, and 20 cars in the parking lot caught fire, eventually leading to a large scale fire in the five-storey building which housed the cinema hall and several offices. The cinema hall was situated in one of the busiest areas of South Delhi and the fire services were delayed owing to the heavy evening traffic.[4] At least 48 fire tenders were pressed into service at 5.20 p.m. and it took them over an hour to put out the fire.[5] Later the dead and the injured were rushed to the nearby All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, where scenes of chaos and pandemonium followed, as relatives and family members of the victims scurried around to look for known faces.[6]
The victims of the tragedy and the families of the deceased later formed 'The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy' (AVUT), which filed the landmark Civil compensation case and won Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) in civil compensation for the relatives and families of victims [7], the judgment is now considered a breakthrough in Compensation Law in India;[8][9] today they meet at every anniversary at 'Smriti Upavan' memorial, outside the hall, where a prayer meeting is held.[2][10] However the Supreme Court on 13/10/2011, nearly halved the sum of compensation awarded to them by the Delhi high court and slashed punitive damages to be paid by cinema owners Ansal brothers from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 25 lakh.[11]
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According to reports, the fire was caused by a 1000 kVA electricity transformer, maintained by Delhi Vidyut Board (electricity Board) (DVB), and housed in the theatre’s basement car park. A small fire had earlier broken out in the morning hours in the electrical transformer, which was soon put out and repairs carried out by DVB officials.[12] Hours later oil spilled from the transformer and caught fire, which spread to the overcrowded car park, where some 36 cars were parked instead of the admissible 18. The fire engulfed some 20 cars, and soon spread through the cinema.[13][14][15]
After the transformer caused a fire at 'Gopal Towers', a high-rise in Rajendra Place, New Delhi in 1983, the licences of 12 cinemas, including that of Uphaar, were cancelled. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Licensing) who inspected Uphaar, had listed out ten serious violations, which all remained uncorrected until the fire 14 years later.[2]
In the beginning a magisterial probe took place which submitted its report on July 3, 1997, wherein it held cinema management, Delhi Vidyut Board, city fire service, the Delhi police's licensing branch and municipal corporation responsible for the incident saying "it contributed to the mishap through their acts of omission and commission",[13] it also blamed the cinema management for losing precious time in alerting the fire services, and also for not maintaining proper distance between the transformer room and the car park.[16] It also said that, "when the fire broke out at 1645 hours, the movie was not stopped nor any announcement made to evacuate the audience. Exit signs were not battery-operated and once the lights went out, panic-struck people had to grope in the dark for exits, many of which were blocked by seats".[13] Subsequently the courts issued non-bailable warrants against Sushil Ansal, his brother Gopal, a Delhi Vidyut Board inspector and two fire service officials. After evading arrest for many days, Sushil and his son Pranav Ansal, the owners of Ansals Theatres and Club Hotels Limited, which owned the Uphaar cinema were finally arrested in Mumbai on July 27, 1997, and sent to judicial custody, though were later released on bail. Also amongst those arrested was the company's director V K Aggarwal.[17]
Following the inquiry, Union Home ministry transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) amidst charges of cover-up by victims families,[17] which on November 15, 1997, filed chargesheet against 16 accused, including theatre owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, for causing death by negligence, endangering life and relevant provisions of the Cinematography Act, 1952. By 2000, the prosecution has completed the recording of evidence with the testimony of its 115 witnesses. The court case ran for over a decade, and the court had over 344 hearings during the first seven years. Four of the accused died,[18] and eight witnesses, mostly relatives of Ansals turned hostile witness,[19] despite High court responding to AVUT's plea and asking trial court in 2002, to expedite the case [7] Meanwhile as the criminal trial dragged on, in 2003, a presiding judge commented upon the repeated requests (for adjournment) as being intended to delay the case.[20]
Almost nine years after the tragedy, a trial court judge visited the Uphaar cinema hall in August, 2006, accompanied by CBI officials who investigated the case to get a first hand look at the seating and fire safety arrangements, which have been blamed for the tragedy. The site had been preserved as “material evidence” since the tragedy. The visit followed a High Court order in which the trial court was asked to examine all available evidence in the matter, and as the courts proceeding were coming to an end. In its report the court observed that on the second floor balcony of the theatre, where victims were asphyxiated, “the space provided for exhaust fans on the walls was found blocked with the help of a cardboard”.[21][22]
In a connected civil court case, 'The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy' (AVUT) sought civil compensation from Ansal Theatre and Clubotels Ltd., which owned the theatre, and the Delhi government alleged 'negligence' on their part led to the fire in the cinema hall. The verdict of this case came on April 24, 2003, and the Delhi High Court found owners of the Uphaar cinema, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Vidyut Board (electricity Board) (DVB) and the licensing authority 'guilty of negligence', and awarded Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) civil compensation to the relatives of victims,[7] which included Rs 15 lakh each to the relatives of the victims, less than 20 years at the time of the tragedy and a sum of Rs 18 lakh each to those, above 20 years. The compensation included Rs.2.5 crore for development of a trauma centre near New Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, situated close to the cinema hall.[18] The court directed the cinema owners to pay 55 per cent of the compensation since they were the maximum beneficiaries of the profit earned from the cinema, the remaining 45 per cent was to be borne equally by MCD, DVB and licensing authorities, each contributing 15 per cent of the amount.[23]
The Supreme Court on October 13 2011 reduced the amount of compensation to be paid to the victims of 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy. The compensation to family of deceased above 20 yrs cut from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 10 lakh each; for those below 20 yrs, from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh.
In 2003, the public prosecutor in the case reported that several important documents filed along with the charge sheet were missing from the court record of the case or had been tampered with or mutilated. The court ordered an inquiry and dismissed the court clerk. In 2006, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police registered the case on a Delhi High Court direction on a petition by 'Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy' (AVUT) convener Neelam Krishnamurthy.
In February 2008, on the basis of the charge-sheet filed by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi police for allegedly removing, tampering and mutilating important documents of the Uphaar fire tragedy case in conspiracy with a clerk in a trial court there in 2003, a Delhi court summoned Uphaar cinema hall owners Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal and four others in the evidence tampering case, under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen offenders) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code.[24]
The final verdict came four years later on November 20, 2007, and the quantum of sentences were given out on November 23, 2007, in which 12 people, including the two Ansal brothers, were found guilty, and later convicted for of various charges including, causing death by negligent act,[15] and were given the maximum punishment of two years’ rigorous imprisonment. They were also fined Rs.1,000 each for violating Section 14 of the Cinematography Act. The court also directed the CBI to investigate the role of other officials who had been giving temporary licences to the Uphaar cinema hall for 17 years.[25]
The other seven accused, three former Uphaar cinema managers, cinema's gatekeeper and three DVB officials, were all given seven years' rigorous imprisonment, under Section 304-A (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and housed at the Tihar Jail.[18][26] The court also fined all the 12 accused with Rs.5,000 each, and also sentenced all of them to two years’ rigorous imprisonment, as they were found guilty of endangering personal safety of others, both the sentences however were to run concurrently.[25]
One year after the verdict, one of the managers, who had allegedly fled from the hall soon after fire broke out and the fire safety measures were not followed, died at a Delhi hospital on 6 December 2008.[27] In December 2008, the High Court, while upholding the trial court order convicting the Ansal brothers, had reduced their sentences of imprisonment from two years to one year.[28] On January 30, 2009, an Apex bench of the Supreme Court granted bail to Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal.
The fire exposed the poor safety standards at public places in the country's capital.[3][15] The court ruled that the lack of a trauma center at the nearby AIIMS hospital had contributed to the high death toll in the incident.[23]