The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has blamed the Delhi Police and passport officials in the city for issuing the travel document to real estate baron Sushil Ansal despite his conviction in the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire. The fire had claimed 59 lives. He was given travel documents without proper verification despite pending criminal cases against him. The revelation came while the Delhi High Court was hearing a plea moved by the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) alleging that Ansal played fraud during his passport renewal. The association is headed by Neelam Krishnamoorthy. The Ministry has stated that in the year 2000 and 2004 additional booklets were issued to Ansal based on a declaration given by him as police verification was not required for the same. However, in 2013, when he sought a fresh passport under the Tatkal scheme, police verification was conducted and the department cleared his report based on which he was issued the travel document, the MEA found during the inquiry. The report was placed before Justice Najmi Waziri of the Delhi High Court. The report further stated that at the time when the court cases were pending and previous conviction was made, it is unclear how the police verification done in 2013 failed to bring these aspects to light. The court had asked the MEA to carry out an investigation against the passport officers who had repeatedly issued the travel documents to Ansal in 2000, 2004, 2013 and 2018, and to submit a report before it. The report further stated that Ansal voluntarily surrendered his passport in August 2017 and said that he had inadvertently declared that no criminal proceeding was pending against him. The Regional Passport Office (RPO) thereafter put the passport in safe custody and levied a penalty of Rs 5,000 on him for the false declaration. Accroding to the report, Ansal then applied for a passport in 2018 after getting a no-objection certificate from a trial court. It added that despite two adverse police reports, the RPO issued him a short-term travel document in August this year after moving his application status to post-PV from pre-PV (police verification). It said it was not clear why his application was suddenly moved from pre-PV to post-PV without any written explanation or reason recorded in June 2018. The complainant, Krishnamoorthy, who lost two children in the tragedy, has been fighting a legal battle on behalf of the victims' families for the last 20 years. She had alleged that Ansal possessed two or three passports. The MEA's report, however, said due to confusion arising out of the mention of a wrong passport number, it was alleged that Ansal possessed two or three passports. It said it came to light after checking the system and the history of passports issued to him, that at no point Ansal was issued more than one valid passport. In an affidavit before the court, the the passport office has said Ansal seemed to have "deliberately concealed" the details of the criminal case against him.

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