What caused Delhi coaching centre tragedy? A cocktail of flouted rules and lapses

Absence of a drainage system and safety measures, and the use of a basement for commercial activities in violation of norms led to the death of three civil services aspirants at the UPSC coaching centre in central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, officials have concluded from preliminary probe.

Investigations have indicated multiple lapses on the part of its owner and civic authorities, officials have said. It is also suspected that the students got trapped in the basement after the biometric system installed at its entrance got jammed when water entered the library.

In all, seven persons have been arrested so far, five on Monday (July 29) and two on Sunday. Among those arrested on Monday are the owner of the building from which the coaching centre was running and the driver of a heavy vehicle that had allegedly damaged the gate of the building. 

Two main reasons

A senior police official who is part of the investigation told the media the probe so far has indicated two main reasons for the incident — the civic authority failed to clear the roadside drain before the onset of Monsoon and there was no provision for draining out water at the basement. The officer said police may summon civic officials to know the reason for not clearing the drain on time.

The FIR, registered on the statement of Sub-Inspector Dharmender Kumar Sharma, stated the owner of the coaching centre, who was present there at the time of the incident, failed to produce the documents required to run a library in the basement. The owner has also accepted that there was no drainage system in the basement, it said.

Violation of rules

Also, the three-storey coaching institute, surrounded by residential and commercial establishments, had permission to use the basement as a store room, but it was being used as library in violation of the rules.

Delhi Fire Services Chief Atul Garg said that the coaching institute made a disclosure to the fire department about the basement in which the centre said it would be used as a store room.

“The building has fire NOC, but in it, they had shown the basement as a store room. The management of the institute was using the same room as a classroom or library which is a violation of the NOC,” Garg told news agency PTI.

More than 35 trapped

A police officer told the media more than 35 people, including students and coaching centre staffers, were trapped on Saturday (July 27) evening when water started gushing into the basement following heavy rains. According to sources in the police department, the basement’s gate was closed, but due to the high pressure of the rainwater that gushed in, it got damaged.

The FIR stated that a lot of rainwater accumulated on the road as the drainage system was not working properly and it entered the four-storey building’s basement which housed the library. With no water outlet provision in the basement, it took more than five hours for the authorities to pump out the water during the rescue operation.

Students’ statements recorded

“We are checking CCTV footage from the area to ascertain the sequence of the events. After scanning the footage, we will identify the people standing close to the institute during the time of the incident and will record their statements,” an officer said.

So far, police have recorded the statements of half a dozen students who were trapped in the basement but managed to come out on time. Some of them were rescued by the other students and locals. A video making rounds on social media purportedly showed water gushing inside the library at the basement and some students escaping through the stairs.

Arrests and charges

The Delhi police have registered an FIR under sections 105 (culpable homicide) and 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings), among others, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and formed multiple teams to probe the incident. The owner and the coordinator of the Rau’s IAS Study Circle have been arrested and booked for culpable homicide and other charges.

“Multiple teams have been formed to investigate the entire incident. We have asked the Delhi Fire Services to provide us with a report about the building and the basement, which was being used as a library but mentioned as store room,” a senior police officer said.

Two persons — coaching centre owner Abhishek Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh — were arrested on Sunday. Both the accused were produced before a court that sent them to judicial custody in Tihar jail for 14 days. On Monday, five more were arrested, including the building owner.

“Criminal negligence”

“A gross criminal negligence is found on part of the owner of the institute in ensuring safety measures as the library in the basement was running illegally and had only one entry and exit point that was biometric-enabled and got locked due to the flooding,” said a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official.

“The students could have escaped had the exit been free. The MCD only approves the building plan but if somebody misuses the basement for commercial activities after declaring it will be used for parking and storing purposes, what else can the agency do to ensure protection?” he said.

Encroachers blamed

Several videos of the incident have gone viral on social media in which some students are seen trying to save themselves from drowning after rain water flooded the basement of the coaching institute. In one of videos, the main entry gate of the coaching centre is seen falling due to excessive rainwater on Saturday evening, leading to the basement being flooded.

The official said storm drains in the area, which carry excess rainwater to bigger drains, were covered by “encroachers on street sides” and contributed to the flooding.

“Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi has held a meeting of the officials in this regard and setting up of a high-level committee after talks with the Delhi government will be announced soon,” another official said.

MCD takes action

The MCD has started action against illegal coaching centres and will set up a high-level committee to probe the flooding of the basement. A team of the civic body reached the Old Rajinder Nagar area to seal several illegally-run basements of coaching centres, a statement by the Delhi government said.

Around 13 such coaching centres were sealed during the action till late Sunday night. These included IAS Gurukul, Chahal Academy, Plutus Academy, Sai Trading, IAS Setu, Topper's Academy, Dainik Samvad, Civils Daily IAS, Career Power, 99 Notes, Vidya Guru, Guidance IAS, and Easy for IAS.

“These coaching centres were found to be operating in basements in violation of rules and they were sealed on the spot and notices were pasted,” the statement said. Rau’s IAS Study Circle has already been sealed by the police.

The MCD had last year conducted a survey of such coaching centres after a massive fire broke out at an institute in Mukherjee Nagar, another coaching hub in north Delhi. “To begin with, the survey will be used to identify those flouting norms,” the official said.

Dreams shattered

The IAS aspirants who died in the incident have been identified as Shreya Yadav (25) of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana, and Nevin Delvin (24) from Ernakulam in Kerala, police said.

Tanya, originally from Bihar’s Aurangabad, was a Delhi University student. Tanya, who took the admission in the coaching institute just one and a half months ago, was staying at a girl’s hostel of Maharaja Agrasen College.

A friend of Tanya said her father works in a mining company in Telangana. She was the eldest child of her parents. She had younger siblings, a brother and a sister.

On Sunday, her parents took her body to Aurangabad for the last rites after a post-mortem at RML hospital. “Tanya had a lot of interest since her childhood (in cracking UPSC),” said her father Vijay Kumar, on his way to take his daughter’s body from Delhi to their native place in Bihar.

Wrong place, wrong time

Nevin was pursuing PhD in Arts and Aesthetics from JNU. He had joined the coaching institute eight months ago but had been staying in a rented accommodation near the university in Vasant Kunj area.

Nevin’s father retired as a Deputy Superintendent of Police in Kerala and his mother is a professor. Nevin had a sister too. His friend called him a hardworking student. He had come to Delhi after completing his MA in 2017.

According to police, Nevin was not a full-time student of the centre and would often come to library for books.

Demand for justice

The third student, Shreya Yadav, was a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar. She earlier used to stay at a PG Hostel in west Delhi’s Shadipur area and had taken admission to the coaching institute two months ago. Shreya had done her BSc in agriculture from a college in UP.

Shreya had moved to Delhi in April and joined the coaching institute in May. Her father runs a dairy shop in UP and her two younger brothers are in school. Her uncle took her body home after autopsy.

As families and friends of the victims demanded action against those involved in the tragic incident, hundreds of students staged protests in the area throughout Sunday, finally leading to a scuffle with the police. A political blame game has also begun, with the BJP and the Congress attacking the AAP government, calling the incident a “murder” and the latter blaming the BJP that ran the MCD earlier.

(With agency inputs)