Fire at Delhi's Uphaar Cinema Hall, where 59 people were killed in blaze in 1997

New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: A fire broke out at the Uphaar Cinema Hall in Delhi, where 59 people had lost their lives in a deadly blaze in 1997, on Sunday morning, reported news agency PTI quoting officials.

However, no injuries have been reported, said officials, adding that the fire department had received a call about the blaze around 4.46 am after which nine fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

Delhi Fire Service Director Atul Garg said the blaze was controlled around 7.20 am, but by that time, it had already damaged some of the seats and furniture of the cinema hall.

The incident has brought back the memories of the 1997 fire at the Uphaar Cinema in which 59 people were killed while over 100 were injured. Recently, the Delhi High Court had rejected a plea filed by Ansal brothers - Sushil and Gopal Ansal - to suspend their seven-year jail term.

Along with Anoop Singh, Prem Prakash Batra, Harswaroop Panwar, Dharamveer Malhotra and Dinesh Chandra Sharma, the Ansal brothers, who are the owners of Uphaar Cinema, were accused of tampering with evidence in the case.

A trial court had on January 31, 2003, ordered an inquiry after some documents related to the case had gone missing from the court's record room. After an inquiry, a court employee was dismissed from service.

The case is related to the tampering of a judicial file pertaining to a letter written by Vice President of Ansal Properties Industries Ltd, V K Nagpal, to the Delhi Fire Service. An FIR was registered in this regard.

"It is important to note, that even in the main Uphaar fire tragedy case, the entire trial was concluded within a period of 10 years with the intervention of this court...

"However, in the instant case, which arises out tampering with the original court records of the Uphaar fire tragedy case, despite 10 years from the date of registration of FIR, not a single prosecution witness has been able to complete their deposition," the plea by association president Neelam Krishnamoorthy said.