New Delhi: Nearly five months after three students drowned in the basement of one of Delhi’s leading civil service exam coaching centres, Rau’s IAS Study Circle, a local court has found sufficient evidence to prosecute the institute’s management and the building’s owners on charges of negligence.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Nishant Garg noted in his order on Wednesday that Rau’s CEO Abhishek Gupta and another employee, Deshpal Singh, who were responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the institute, were aware that the basement could not have been used as a library and exam hall.
“They allowed the students to study there for long hours; they were aware that water used to collect in the basement and despite that, risked the lives of students,” Garg noted in his order taking cognizance of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet.
“The accused persons failed to take any steps to prevent the water from entering into the basement and instead used/allowed the basement to be used as library/exam hall where students used to remain present for long hours,” he added.
The CBI took over the probe from police on the Delhi High Court’s orders after an initial inquiry found the institute had flouted several safety norms that led to the drowning of the three students—25-year-old Shreya Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, 25-year-old Tanya Soni from Telangana, and 24-year-old Nevin Delvin from Kerala.
About 30 students were trapped in the basement as a steel gate meant to stop the flow of water from the water-logged road into the institute collapsed, leading to the flooding of the basement.
The central agency named the institute’s CEO, Abhishek Gupta, coordinator Deshpal Singh, and the building’s co-owners—Parvinder, Harvinder, Sarabjit and Tajinder Singh—in connection with criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Police arrested Abhishek Gupta and Deshpal Singh along with the four co-owners on 28 July.
The Delhi High Court had on 13 September released the owners on interim bail which was further extended till 21 January next year. Rau’s IAS Study Circle CEO Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh were also granted interim bail by a court in September, which on Saturday was extended till 31 January.
The CBI’s findings suggest the institute’s awareness of an accident waiting to happen and not doing enough to stop it.
It found that a poor drainage system, an unstable entrance gate and a blocked door prevented students from escaping from the flooded basement following a torrential downpour on 27 July.
The CBI said that the building’s owners rented the basement to the institute even though they knew commercial use wasn’t legally permitted and they were aware that water entered the basement during the rainy season. The owner, the agency alleged, got Rs 4 lakh per month as rental income from the basement.
According to the chargesheet, the owners secured an electricity connection with a load capacity of 11.0 KVA to lease the basement for commercial use despite knowing that water frequently entered there during the rainy season.
Moreover, electricity demand in the basement, used as a library and exam hall, outstripped the sanctioned load. Demand shot up to 16 KVA in June.
Electricity demand overshot the sanctioned load because the institute had made “extensive electrical arrangements” such as 19 ceiling fans, 10 split air conditioners, two cassette-type air conditioners, 22 downlighters, 36 meters of linear light fittings, and two heavy-duty exhaust fans, the agency said.
It said the basement’s structure made it difficult for students to exit. “During the incident, when the flow of water reached down the stairs, the door got blocked and the water filled the cubicle-shaped partition, due to which, the glass sheet of the door got shattered and the entire basement started filling with water with great force. The force of water was such that students and staff members were not in a position to move ahead and got trapped,” the agency said.
The CBI further said that Deshpal Singh had asked another staff member to add a steel sheet to the main gate as a preventive measure to raise its height and create a barrier to stop rainwater from the street from entering the basement.
However, a report by an IIT Delhi expert found the gate was “highly unstable” to use as a barrier against flood waters as it was running “with only two wheels and there was insufficient end anchoring after full closure of the gates”.
The CBI found that the two water pumps installed by the owners to remove water from the harvesting pit at the entrance were “choked”. It alleged that the owners were aware of the risk that water from the pit could flow into the basement during heavy rainfall.
The agency pinned the blame for the safety lapses on the institute’s CEO and coordinator, saying the inundation of the basement was a “regular feature” and the management in the past had taken steps such as closing down the door to prevent the flow of water into the basement, prohibiting its use during such periods or evacuating students in such situations.
“The investigation carried out so far reveals that the owners of the building i.e. Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Parvinder Singh and Sarabjit Singh had let out the basement of the building to accused Abhishek Gupta for commercial use despite being aware that it could not have been used for such purposes,” additional CJM Garg noted in his order.
“They took an electricity connection with a load capacity of 11.0 KVA with an intention that the basement may be used for commercial purposes; they were aware that rainwater used to enter into the basement, particularly during the rainy season.”
On their part, the counsels of Gupta and Deshpal Singh argued that the incident was “unprecedented” and could not have been “perceived or anticipated”.
“The responsibility of owners or occupiers of the building cannot be stretched beyond a point, particularly when it is clear that civic authorities are responsible for inaction and idle approach towards maintaining the drainage system,” their counsels argued during a hearing of a plea seeking bail in September.
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Challenges faced by students
The Rau’s coaching centre was one of many such institutes in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area, where thousands of students studied for the UPSC exam in cramped basements.
After the deaths at Rau’s, the Supreme Court said the centres had become veritable “death chambers” that operated under “horrible conditions” without complying with safety norms.
Local authorities sealed all basements being used as libraries after the death of the three students which sparked widespread protests. Rau’s is now surrounded by barricades of the Delhi Police.
Kaushik, a 25-year-old student, and other civil service aspirants say the number of students at Old Rajinder Nagar’s coaching centres has declined since the drowning because of the traumatic memories of flooding and fear among parents.
Students who have the wherewithal prefer to study at home.
Some students who have convinced their parents to stay back or return to Old Rajinder Nagar after the tragedy say their biggest challenge is that many centres are still shut and the few that remain have become unaffordable as they have jacked up library charges.
Most centres and private libraries have hiked their monthly charges from between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 a month to about Rs 5,000, students say.
“All those libraries have now been shut. Authorities initiated a crackdown against them in the wake of the tragedy and those are all shut. Those who might be running it must be at the scale of personal level in one room,” Kaushik told ThePrint.
“Earlier, libraries used to cost us a maximum of Rs 3,000 per month but now it has shot up to Rs 5,000 per month because of unprecedented demand for libraries and limited supply of libraries which are now mostly on the upper floors of buildings in the area.”
After the basements were sealed, institutes tightened safety measures in basements and only staff members are now allowed to enter. Students are not allowed inside.
Two students, who are enrolled in Sriram’s IAS coaching centre next to Rau’s IAS Study Circle, confirmed the basements were closed at their institute and other similar institutions.
“Earlier, both classrooms and libraries were functional in the basement of our coaching centre. But as it was sealed in the wake of the incident, it has been completely shut even for entry of students in that part of the building,” one of them told ThePrint.
“Entry allowed only for staff or official purposes is the strict instruction pasted on the stairs from where there was entry to the basement earlier,” said the other student.
Meanwhile, many students are still shaken by memories of the day of the flooding.
Mitu, a 22-year-old student who was studying in a similar basement, is still traumatised by the drowning incident. “I never look at the building and try to avoid going that part of the street such is the negative vibe that place has become for aspirants such as me,” she told ThePrint few metres away from Rau’s IAS Study Circle.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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