Finally justice arrives for kinā??s of Uphaar victims

Nov 20:   Tuesday brought at least some respite to the families of victims of a decade old Uphaar cinema fire case as the court pronounced guilty on all the 12 accused’s. The unfortunate incident took lives of 59 people during the screening of a film, which termed as a complete negligence of the cinema hall management and the people associated with it.

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The Delhi’s Patiala House Court found all the 12 accused, including the Cinema hall owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, guilty for bringing fatality to the people due to their negligence. Other convicted officials belong to the civic department and the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB), who had placed an electric transformer on the premises of the cinema hall.

The court will pronounce punishment on Wednesday over all the convicts intended for this June 13, 1997 incident. According to legal experts a maximum punishment of two years could be awarded to each, which seems miniature compared to the dreadful act.

However, as per the act of culpable homicide, which does not count to murder, refers a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. In this case, apart from Ansals, the others found guilty include three DVB officials, three managers and a watchman of the theatre.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had chargesheeted 16 persons, and out of which four accused had died during the 10-year long trial, after producing in 115 persons as witnesses. But later the proceedings picked up the fast lane after the Delhi High Court had directed the lower court and CBI to complete the hearing by August 2007.

Earlier the court had delayed the pronouncement of sentence twice citing that the files of the case are huge and to examine all the files minutely is a time consuming process. Meanwhile, the court has also refused to take further written arguments from the convicts in reply to CBI’s record, saying that the directions of the Supreme Court in this regard have already been complied with.

Fateful Friday

It was June 13 and Friday, people as usual were eager to watch the much-hyped Sunny Deol starrer movie ‘Border’ but suddenly the balcony of the hall started filling with smoke due to the massive fire outbreak and the people sitting upstairs in the balcony got trapped in it, as exit points from the balcony were closed.

The fire broke out due to the transformer installed in the ground floor of the cinema hall premises resulting the death of 59 people in asphyxia. Due to heavy smoke it was difficult for the audience to find any exit point.

However, after CBI took over the case from the Delhi Police several interesting factors came into light, as the emergency system was completely out of order in such a large movie theatre. Apart from that the two existing exit points were purposely closed for adding 40 more seats in the balcony. There is a complete violation of all safety norms since there was only one exit route for balcony viewers, and on top of that the door was also closed from outside.

Also the investigation found officials of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Public Workers Department (PWD) for authorising illegal license to cinema hall owners. Delhi Fire Service has also been booked for giving no-objection certificate without undertaking complete inspection.

Association of Uphaar Grief-Stricken Victims

It was the continuous effort by the association for Uphaar grief-stricken victims, who joined hands to bring justice for their near ones and made it a point to fight till the end. The relatives made a group, ‘Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy’ (AVUT), which took up all the issues to Delhi High Court and even to the Supreme Court for speedy trial but again it was our sleeping justice system that took 10 long years to come to the climax of this haunting tragedy.