UPSC aspirant deaths: Five more, including SUV driver who created waves on waterlogged road, held

NEW DELHI
Delhi Police on Monday arrested five people in connection with the death by drowning of three UPSC aspirants in a boxed-out basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar on Saturday night – including the driver of an SUV, which created waves that caused the institute’s gate to break and flood the basement.
This took the total number of arrests in the case to seven. Others arrested on Monday were the four owners of the basement, the police said. Previously, the CEO-owner of Rau’s Study Circle, and the centre’s coordinator were arrested.
The police arrests on Monday appeared to primarily focus on one individual – the driver of an SUV, 49-year-old Manuj Kathuria. They also seized his 2021 model Force Gurkha off-roader.
An investigator, who did not wish to be identified, suggested that Kathuria was apparently driving “rashly”. “We have been told that the driver was making a video while crossing the institute on his way home and was even being asked by a vegetable vendor not to cross in the manner. This claim is to be verified.”
Dashboard cameras or dashcams are onboard digital video recorders that continuously record the view from vehicle’s windscreen without human intervention. Anyone with a dashcam in their car are recording videos by default, and may not be doing so for uploading that content.
Kathuria’s YouTube channel titled “Indian Outlander” has over 8,000 subscribers and 29 videos — the latest post about a month ago. Investigators said he was seen driving rashly in CCTV camera footage and the same was corroborated by multiple eyewitnesses, adding that the high-intensity waves damaged the gate of the centre, causing flooding.
Deputy commissioner of police (central) M Harsha Vardhan said Kathuria is a resident of Rajendra Nagar. The others arrested were identified as Sarabjeet Singh, Tejinder Singh, Harinder Singh and Parminder Singh, owners of the basement who belong to the same extended family and live in Karol Bagh.
The five accused arrested on Monday were sent to five-day judicial custody after being produced in court.
A second investigator, requesting anonymity, said that the Singh family owned the basement and third floor of the building and rented it to Gupta and his father around three years ago, when they started the institute.
A family member of Singh’s, who was present at the Rajendra Nagar police station, on condition of anonymity, said, “It’s unfortunate what happened. Our only fault is that we own the basement. How would we know what the owner (of the coaching centre) was doing here?”
“The arrested persons include the owners of the basement and an individual who drove a vehicle which appears to have damaged the gate of the building. With these arrests, total number of persons arrested in the case has gone up to seven,” Vardhan said.
On Saturday night, three civil services aspirants — Tanya Soni, 22, Shreya Yadav, 25, and Nevin Delvin, 29 — died after being trapped in the basement of the coaching centre, where a library was allegedly operational. As water gushed into the building from waterlogged roads, the three of them were trapped inside the basement with water level rising rapidly and enveloping them.
On Sunday, police arrested the owner-cum-CEO of Rau’s IAS Study Circle Abhishek Gupta, 41, and coordinator DP Singh, 60, on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence among other charges.
A case under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (1) (causing death by negligence),115 (2) (causing hurt), 290 (negligent conduct with respect to building) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered at Rajendra Nagar police station on Sunday. Gupta and DP Singh were sent to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday.
Police said they are awaiting details of the officials responsible for the drainage system in the area to fix culpability, and may also add sections of abetment to crime to increase their ambit of investigation.