New Delhi: Bhupendra Jaj spent all his life driving cabs in Madhya Pradesh. He was working long hours to ensure his son Arpit fulfilled his dream of studying at Delhi University and becoming a chartered accountant.
Arpit too had worked hard in school, scored good results in the CUET exam, and managed to get admission at Delhi University’s Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College. For the 20-year-old, the journey to Delhi was special. Like thousands of students living around South Campus, the B.Com second-year student found a room in a PG accommodation inside the cramped, dark, narrow alleyways of Satya Niketan, which barely see sunlight, nor have fire safety exits.
But Arpit’s dream was cut short Sunday afternoon when the multi-storey PG building suddenly collapsed, trapping multiple people, including students, under debris. Arpit was one of seven people killed.
A day after the collapse, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) suspended five officials, including the Deputy Commissioner of the south zone.
According to AIIMS, the deceased include five students, Arpit Jaj, from Dewas, MP; Abhishek Kumar, from Chandauli, UP; Yuvraj Soni, from Durg, Chhattisgarh; Pavan Kumar, from Auraiya, UP; and Akshat Singh, from Katni, MP. Two labourers, Param Lal Kori and Surinder Singh were also killed in the incident. ThePrint profiles the five students who died in the collapse.
‘Donated my son’s eye’
A few hours before the building collapsed, Arpit had made a video call to his mother back home in Dewas. It was a regular conversation. The family had no inkling of the tragedy that was to come an hour and a half later.
“Arpit was entirely focused on his future. He had cleared the first round of his CA foundation exams while managing his college course,” Bhupendra told ThePrint. “We worked very hard to send him to Delhi. I drive a cab. His mother ran a small cosmetic shop to help support the household and fund Arpit and his sister’s education.”
Jaj has only one demand now, that the government immediately shut down these old, unsafe hostels and PGs. “They are death traps.”
“Doctors at AIIMS told us one of my son’s eyes has been damaged, but the other one could be donated. I felt it was right. We decided to donate his cornea,” Jaj said. “I thought it might help someone else see the world,” he said. “It was painful to see him like that, but I hope to one day meet the person who receives his cornea.”
‘If only he told me earlier’
In Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district, Santosh Singh has been struggling with one question.
His son, Abhishek Kumar, a B.Com student at Motilal Nehru College, lived in a PG hostel ‘Daze’ in Satya Niketan, paying Rs 15,000 a month. The family had no idea the building was unsafe.
“Abhishek never told us the building was so dilapidated,” Santosh told ThePrint from Varanasi, where the cremation was being carried out. “If only he had told us earlier, maybe we would have shifted him to a safer place. When we visited, we couldn’t imagine a tragedy like this could happen.”
Construction work had been underway in the building’s basement. This has left the family angry.
“Why was construction allowed while students were living there?” Santosh asked. “They should have emptied the PG first. Keeping children in such a dangerous environment was wrong.”
Santosh got to know about the collapse around 5.45 pm Sunday from his son’s friends. He immediately took a bus from Varanasi to Delhi.
According to Santosh, Abhishek’s friends had warned him repeatedly to move out because of the building’s deteriorating condition. “Every time his friends visited, they saw the infrastructure falling apart,” he said.
He wants the government to fix the system before any more children are killed.
‘Why did it take so long to rescue?’
The grief in Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh, is palpable, as is the anger. On Tuesday, the body of Pavan Kumar, a B.Sc Computer Science student at Motilal Nehru College arrived at his home town.
Pavan’s father, a retired doctor, had sent his son to Delhi for better educational opportunities. Speaking to ThePrint, Pavan’s older sister Aparna, asked, “Why are safety norms routinely ignored until people are killed?”
“Every year there is a tragedy,” Aparna said, recalling the 2024 deaths of students in Old Rajinder Nagar basement flooding. “Basements are being used illegally, and money-minded people drive the corruption. There is always a big outrage after an incident, but then what happens? Who takes the blame?”
Aparna said that the family wants real accountability, not political statements. “We don’t want any politics. We only want to see changes on the ground. Why did it take so long to rescue the students? Why were children left under the debris for hours?”
‘Just returned after Raksha Bandhan’
For hours after the collapse, Yuvraj Soni’s family in Durg had not known what had unfolded in Delhi, his cousin Nitesh Soni told ThePrint.
Yuvraj, a B.Com student at Motilal Nehru College (Evening), had come to Delhi from Durg, Chhattisgarh. He wanted to become a CA.
The son of a local pharmacy owner, Yuvraj was one of two siblings. “He had spent his last days at home celebrating Raksha Bandhan before returning to Delhi on 31 August. Shortly after coming back, he moved into the Satya Niketan PG,” Nitesh said.
After the family identified his body at the hospital, they returned to Chhattisgarh. They are still trying to come to terms with the tragedy.
‘Searched for him at the site, then AIIMS’
Another deceased student, Akshat, from Katni, had taken a room at the hostel ‘Daze’ on 16 August 2025. A relative told ThePrint that his family found out only at 7.30 pm Sunday.
“When Akshat’s father called us, we boarded a train to reach Delhi. When we reached there, all we saw was chaos. It was a very tragic scene. So many children were injured, had died. There was chaos all over,” the relative said.
He said the family first tried searching for Akshat in the debris, but failed. “We then had to go to AIIMS to look for him. There we identified him.”
The relative said Akshat was good at studies. He had cracked CUET, and he secured PGDAV College, University of Delhi for B.com. He was preparing for UPSC.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)