IAS coaching centre owner, coordinator held after 3 deaths, students protest

Three civil services aspirants died on Saturday, 27 July, after the basement of a building housing a coaching centre was flooded following heavy rain in central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar area, officials said.

According to the Delhi Fire Department (DFS), a call about waterlogging was received from Rau's IAS Study Circle at around 7 pm on Saturday about the basement of the coaching institute being flooded.

"The caller told us that there was a possibility that some people were trapped. We are investigating how the entire basement was flooded. It appeared that the basement got flooded very fast due to which some people were trapped inside," DCP (Central Delhi) M. Harshavardhan told reporters.

A fire department official said that a total of five tenders were rushed to the site. The basement was full of water when they arrived.

The bodies of two female students and a male student were retrieved from the site during the rescue operation by the NDRF, local police and fire department, the official said.

Shreya Yadav of Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni from Telangana and Nevin Dalvin from Ernakulam in Kerala were identified to have died in the incident, police said.

The rescue operation was continuing past midnight.

Students held a protest over the deaths of the civil services aspirants, raising slogans against authorities.

Revenue minister Atishi directed chief secretary Naresh Kumar to initiate an inquiry and submit a report within 24 hours on the incident.

"A magisterial inquiry has been ordered to investigate how this incident happened. Whoever is responsible for this incident will not be spared," Atishi posted on X.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police have detained the owner and coordinator of the coaching centre where three students died due to flooding following heavy rains, officials said.

Police have booked them under charges of culpable homicide among other charges, they said.

"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. So far we have detained two people -- owner and coordinator of the coaching centre," deputy commissioner of police M. Harsha Vardhan said.

Preliminary investigation suggests that the basement housed a library where several students were present. Water suddenly started flooding the basement. Ropes were used to evacuate the trapped students, the officials said.

The furniture in the coaching centre started floating when it was flooded and this created obstruction in the rescue operation, a police officer said.

Earlier this week, a 26-year-old civil services aspirant was electrocuted after he touched an iron gate that had electricity running through it following heavy rain in central Delhi's Patel Nagar area

BJP leader Manjinder Sirsa claimed that 18 people were still trapped but there was no official confirmation.

Swaraj said that divers had to be called to rescue the students.

"For the past week, locals were urging AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak to get the drain here cleaned. However, Durgesh Pathak didn't listen to them. Arvind Kejriwal, Durgesh Pathak and the AAP government are entirely responsible for this incident," she said.