‘Cracking UPSC Was Dream’: All About 3 IAS Aspirants Who Drowned In Basement Of Delhi Coaching Centre

Shreya Yadav of Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni from Telangana and Navin Dalwin from Ernakulam in Kerala were killed after flooding due to heavy rain in the basement of Rau’s IAS Coaching Academy in central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area on Saturday. Students suspect the number of casualties is higher, claiming they saw more bodies. They have been demanding the CCTV footage from the civic authorities.

The centre had the permission to use the basement only for storage purposes and not as library, according to the Delhi Fire Services’ (DFS) No-Objection Certificate (NOC) accessed by CNN-News18. The DFS will write to the Delhi Police to add relevant sections to the First Information Report (FIR).

Saurabh Shukla, Sub-District Magistrate, Ambedkar Nagar, told ANI, “We got the information that a student from Ambedkar Nagar, died from the incident that happened at night. So, as per the instruction of the district administration, we reached here…she was a very promising student, and she went to Delhi for IAS coaching…we have sought the report from the authorities…”

Relative of Shreya Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav told ANI, “I received no information officially, either from the coaching institute or administration. I saw the news and reached here. I went to the mortuary and asked them to show me the face for identification but they denied saying it was a police case. They showed me a paper where her (Shreya Yadav) name was written… When the news of students being deceased started coming up as I was there with her at the time of her admission, I called the coaching institute. They said we couldn’t tell the name but two casualties had happened… Those who have given birth only know the value of life and it shouldn’t be lost due to mismanagement. I demand that a case of culpable homicide should be lodged against the owner of the coaching institute…”

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP V Sivadasan told ANI, “We have visited the spot of incident and spoke to the family members of the victim from Ernakulum. This shouldn’t have happened…there is no proper drainage system in Delhi…coaching centre owners conduct classes and set up library in the basement without proper permission from the government…We demand a safety audit of all the coaching centres and strict rules against them. The government is promoting these coaching centres as the officials and authorities are collecting huge amount of money from the coaching centre owners.”

“Navin (Dalwin) was from Kerala and was pursuing a PhD from JNU. He was a little older than us and a regular at the library. We are finding it difficult to come to terms with the loss,” one of his classmates told News18.

Delhi Police on Sunday arrested the owner and coordinator of Rau’s IAS Study Circle — Abhishek Gupta and Deshpal Singh.

“We have registered an FIR at Rajinder Nagar Police Station under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106(1) (death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide), 115(2) (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings) and 35 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and launched an investigation,” Deputy Commissioner of Police M Harsha Vardhan said.

According to the DFS, a call about waterlogging was received from the coaching centre around 7 pm on Saturday, stating there was a possibility that some people were trapped.

Police said it appeared that the basement got flooded quickly due to which some people were trapped inside. A fire department official said a total of five tenders were rushed to the site and the basement was full of water when they arrived.

Ropes were used to evacuate the trapped students, officials said. The furniture at the coaching centre was floating and created obstruction in the rescue operation, a police officer said.

With Inputs from Agencies