A day after the death of three young civil services job aspirants at a coaching centre in New Delhi, the police on Sunday arrested two people. Tanya Soni, 21, Shreya Yadav, 25, and Nevin Delvin, 29, drowned when the basement library of Rau’s IAS Study Circle coaching centre flooded following heavy localised rainfall. Abhishek Gupta, 41, the CEO and owner of the institute, and DP Singh, 60, coordinator, have been booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence.
This tragedy marks the latest in a series of monsoon-related deaths in the capital, bringing the total to at least 18 this season. Other incidents include electrocutions and flooding-related fatalities, underscoring the city’s struggle with inadequate drainage and infrastructure.
Hundreds of civil services aspirants who live in various PG accommodations in the area protested outside the building on Sunday, prompting the police to seal off the spot declaring it “crime scene”. The protesters were demanding government officials meet them and blocked the arterial road leading to Karol Bagh metro station.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Harsha Vardhan said a case has been registered under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (1) (causing death by negligence), 115 (2) (causing hurt), 290 (negligent conduct with respect to building) and 3(5) (common intention) of the BNS.
Harsha Vardhan said when senior police officers failed to convince the protesters to leave the area, they were removed from the spot.
Shreya Yadav’s uncle, Dharmendra Yadav, 43, a resident of Ghaziabad, said, “She had completed her bachelor’s in science from UP. She wanted to prepare for civil services and make us proud. Her father is a farmer. Her parents are in shock.”
Nevin Delvin was a PhD scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he had completed his MPhil.
Soni’s parents and friends had also gathered at the mortuary but refused to speak to the media.
The shocking incident, meanwhile, sparked a political blame game between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which is also in power in the municipal corporation, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with authorities ordering multiple probes into the incident.
Urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the Lieutenant Governor of inaction against officials who failed to clean drains ahead of the monsoon, stating, “Truth of Delhi – Everyone is saying that the work of removing silt from drains and sewers in Delhi was not done properly. Due to this, there was waterlogging in entire Delhi……a big conspiracy has been hatched against the people of Delhi.”
Delhi BJP chief Virender Sachdeva demanded the resignation of the ministers concerned, saying, “Same ministers who were boasting about cleaning drains and sewers until Saturday morning are now, on Sunday, blaming officials for the lack of cleanliness.”
Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered a probe by the Divisional Commissioner, stating the incident was “indicative of the larger malaise of misgovernance that Delhi has been subjected to”. He added, “The role of coaching institutions and landlords in not ensuring basic safety of students, who pay hefty fees and rents, away from their homes needs to be looked into.”
On Sunday, officials shared new details of what the victims and the survivors of the tragedy were up against. Delhi Fire Service (DFS) director Atul Garg reported that rescue efforts were hampered by waterlogging on the road outside the building. “There was no way we could pump the water out. Therefore, we had to wait till the water from the road receded on its own before we could pump out water from the basement,” Garg said.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was called in at 8:25 p.m. An NDRF official described the challenging rescue operation: “The basement was approximately 12 feet deep with an estimated area of approximately 100 feet X 50 feet. It took the divers three hours to fish out the bodies of the three victims as the rescue personnel worked through muddy water and furniture items such as almirahs, chairs and benches.”
Deepak Jaiswal, deputy commandant leading the 32-member NDRF team, added, “The stairs leading down to the basement were also flooded. Our team broke open a glass enclosure, which was next to the stairs that was flooded. That was the only way to enter the flooded basement.”
The tragedy brought attention the rampant violation of building bylaws in the area. Officials have stated that the library in the basement was operating in violation of rules mandating the space be used only for parking and storage purposes.
According to local residents, Rajendra Nagar and Karol Bagh areas are hubs for coaching centres where thousands of students live in paying guest accommodations, and several buildings run so-called “study rooms” in their basements.
MCD mayor Shelly Oberoi issued an order on Sunday, stating, “All such coaching centres across Delhi which are under the jurisdiction of MCD and running commercial activities in basements which are in violation of building bye-laws strict action should be taken against them immediately.”
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