UPSC aspirants killed in Delhi coaching centre: Businessman who drove past Rau’s, four co-owners of basement denied bail: ‘3 innocent lives lost’ | Delhi News
UPSC aspirants killed in Delhi coaching centre: Businessman who drove past Rau’s, four co-owners of basement denied bail: ‘3 innocent lives lost’ | Delhi News
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A Delhi court on Wednesday denied bail to Manoj Kathuria, the man who drove his SUV in a waterlogged lane, allegedly breaking the gates of Rau’s IAS Study Circle where three civil service aspirants drowned and died. The four co-owners of the basement (and the building) were also denied bail.
“Perusal of the CCTV footage of the alleged incident shows that the accused can be seen driving the said vehicle on an already heavily waterlogged road at such a speed causing large displacement of water as a result of which the gate of the alleged premises gave way and the water went into the basement and consequently three innocent lives have been lost in the said incident,” said Judicial Magistrate First class (JMFC) Vinod Kumar.
“Perusal of CCTV footage prima facie shows that he (Kathuria) is being tried to be warned of the dangers ahead by some passersby but he did not pay any heed,” the Judge added.
The 50-year-old businessman, arrested in connection with the deaths of three UPSC aspirants who drowned on Saturday in the flooded basement of the coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar, argued in a Delhi court on Tuesday that civic authorities are the real culprits. He has been accused of having forced a strong wave of water that breached the entrance and eventually led to flooding at the centre’s basement.
Advocate Rakesh Malhotra, representing Kathuria, had earlier said that it isn’t possible to drive a car at a high speed in a waterlogged area and that the speed of the vehicle was just 15 km per hour. “… What could I have done? Can I be expected to stop my car in a waterlogged area and knock on every door?” the advocate had said earlier.
“How would I have known that my car would produce such momentum and velocity that kids inside a basement would drown because of the gate collapsing?” he had earlier questioned.
Apart from Kathuria, co-owners of the building’s basement – brothers Parvinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Sarabjit Singh and Tajinder Singh — were also arrested. All five are in judicial custody till August 12.
Two others, CEO of Rau’s IAS Study Circle Abhishek Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh, were arrested on Sunday and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
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