‘Role of officials in passport to Ansal being probed’

New Delhi: The Delhi police told the Delhi high court on Tuesday that it had launched a probe into the role of passport officials in connection with the issuance of travel document to real estate baron Sushil Ansal, who was convicted for the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire incident that claimed 59 lives.

The crime branch of Delhi police, in a status report placed before Justice Najmi Waziri, said an “investigation regarding the role of passport officials has also been initiated.” It added that a notice was served to the regional passport office (RPO) “for the details of all passports issued to Sushil Ansal from 2000 onwards, including the one in 2018.”

On December 17 last year, the court had directed the police to lodge an FIR in connection with Ansal getting a favourable verification report in 2013, when he had applied for a fresh passport. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Ansal and the police officers who had given the favourable verification report.

The police, on March 13, had told the court that they had started interrogating Ansal as regards the issuance of the passport to him.

The court was hearing a plea moved by the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) through its chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy, seeking a CBI probe into the alleged criminal misconduct by passport and police officials in issuance of the travel document to Ansal.

On June 13, 1997, a fire in the Uphaar cinema hall in the national capital had killed 59 people during the screening of the Hindi film, ‘Border.’

Ms Krishnamoorthy, who lost her two children in the tragedy, has been fighting a legal battle on behalf of the victims’ families for over 20 years now.