Uphaar Cinema fire
| Date | 13 June 1997 |
|---|---|
| Location | Green Park, Delhi, India |
| Cause | due to suffocation, stampede |
| Deaths | 59 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 103 |
The Uphaar Cinema fire, one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history, occurred on Friday, 13 June 1997 at Uphaar Cinema, in Green Park, Delhi, during the 3-to-6 pm screening of the movie Border. Trapped inside, 59 people died, mostly due to suffocation, and 103 were seriously injured in the resulting stampede.
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. It won ₹25 crore (equivalent to ₹44 crore or US$6.5 million in 2016) compensation for the relatives and families of the victims in the case, now considered a breakthrough in civil compensation law in India. However the Supreme Court on 13 October 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 ₹2.5 crore (equivalent to ₹3.6 crore or US$540,000 in 2016) to ₹25 lakh (equivalent to ₹36 lakh or US$54,000 in 2016).
In its final order Supreme Court on 25 August 2015 modified its earlier order and ordered real estate barons Ansal brothers will undergo a two-year rigorous jail term in the Uphaar fire case if they fail to pay Rs.30 crore each within three months.
On the morning of the fire, at around 7 a.m, an explosion had been heard by the security guard, Sudhir Kumar, who along with his friend found smoke in the transformer room. The fire brigade and the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) were informed – the fire brigade extinguished this fire and DVB completed their repairs between 10:30 am and 11 am. But in the court session only the staff and the head was punished and not the DVB suprintendent and the DVB labourers.
This was not the first instance of such fires. After an earlier transformer caused fire at Gopal Towers, a high-rise in Rajendra Place, New Delhi in 1983, the licences of 12 cinemas, including that of Uphaar, had been cancelled. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Licensing) who inspected Uphaar, had listed ten serious violations, however all remained uncorrected until the fire 14 years later. On 6 July 1989, a fire had broken out at Uphaar cinema due to a fault in the sub station.
...
Wikipedia