Delhi: Owner, Thar driver held; bulldozers action launched

A student during a protest after three civil services aspirants died due to drowning at a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar area. Pic/PTI

Five more people were arrested on Monday and bulldozers began demolishing encroachments as anguish over the deaths of three civil service aspirants who drowned in the basement of a coaching centre echoed across the city, from parliament to the streets of Old Rajinder Nagar.

The driver of an SUV which drove through the flooded street, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storey building and inundate the basement, was among the five arrested. The SUV was also seized.

With this, the number of arrests has gone up to seven. The owner and the coordinator of the coaching institute have already been nabbed and booked for culpable homicide.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, battling charges of negligence and not desilting storm water drains, terminated a junior engineer and suspended an assistant engineer of the area for alleged lapses on their part.

"Encroachments covering storm water drains to be demolished," MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar told reporters. He had told PTI earlier that storm drains were covered by encroachers, leading to waterlogging and rainwater entering the basement.

Politicians clash in Lok Sabha

Cutting across party lines, Lok Sabha members demanded an inquiry into the death of three UPSC aspirants due to flooding in their coaching centre's basement here with the BJP blaming the city's AAP government for the tragedy. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the incident tragic and demanded a thorough investigation to fix accountability for the death of the students. "In UP, bulldozers are run over illegal buildings. I want to know if bulldozers will be run here too," the MP from UP's Kannauj said. During the Question Hour, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan evaded a direct reply to a query on the death of the three IAS aspirants in Delhi.

Fire NOC of coaching centre to be cancelled

Delhi Fire Services initiated the process of cancelling NOC of the Rau's IAS Study Circle building, officials said. "The fire NOC was issued to the building after it fulfilled all the norms. But there was no system to pump the water out from the basement. We have initiated the process of cancelling the fire NOC," senior official said.

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