‘Why aren’t you holding those accountable who made such a weak gate?’ Court asks CBI in Delhi coaching centre deaths case

The judge was referring to the breaching of the gate of the coaching centre after water from the street outside Rau’s knocked it off on the day of the incident.

Delhi coaching centre deaths case, CBI court hearing, weak gate accountability, Rau’s IAS Study Circle,

The Special Investigation Team has filed charge sheets in 175 of 510 riot cases, but only 21 people have been convicted in three cases so far.

Written by: Nirbhay Thakur

3 min readNew DelhiAug 12, 2024 10:08 PM IST First published on: Aug 12, 2024 at 10:06 PM IST

“Why aren’t you holding accountable the persons who made such a weak gate?” — a Delhi court asked the CBI on Monday as it heard the bail plea of four accused in the coaching centre deaths case. Three civil services aspirants died on July 28 after the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar was flooded.

“We have heard of flyovers falling…if the contractor uses substandard material, then it is a natural consequence,” Principal District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna said while hearing the bail plea of four co-owners of the building where the incident happened.

The judge was referring to the breaching of the gate of the coaching centre after water from the street outside Rau’s knocked it off on the day of the incident. Eventually, the basement was flooded, leading to the tragedy. The water from the street allegedly breached the gate after a local, Manoj Kathuria, drove his SUV in the lane, police had earlier said. After the Delhi High Court pulled up the police for arresting him, a Delhi court granted him bail.

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On Monday, advocate Amit Chadha appearing for the co-owners told the court, “The entire property is commercial and is being used for coaching. The accused are only landowners. They never told Rau’s to use the basement as a library. He also added that the accused voluntarily went to the police and didn’t escape the arrest.

The advocate also added that a case of negligence can be made against the owners, at best, and not a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. “Knowledge is when a person knows he’s doing some act which is illegal and likely to cause death. There has to be direct proximity,” he added. The co-owners of the basement didn’t have the knowledge that the aspirants would drown, he said.

The CBI, however, rebutted the arguments of Chadha vehemently. “You were getting Rs 4 lakh a month, and the lives of three innocent children were taken away,” the central agency said.

The judge then asked the CBI if there was any evidence that waterlogging took place on that same road “occasionally”. As per the judge, if that was the case then it can be implied that the owners had the “knowledge” that this drowning could occur.

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Reading a student’s complaint who had said that the basement was unsafe for aspirants, the CBI made the case that the owners must have known about it. “Within 10 minutes of rain, waterlogging takes place in that area…shouldn’t the owners also take some responsibility?” said advocate Abhijeet Anand representing the victims.

Following the arguments, the hearing was adjourned till Tuesday.

Other than the four co-owners and the SUV driver, CEO of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, Abhishek Gupta, and coaching coordinator Deshpal Singh were also earlier arrested in the case.

Nirbhay Thakur

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