New Delhi: A Delhi court Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of the driver of an SUV who was arrested by the Delhi Police on the charge of speeding through a waterlogged road in Old Rajinder Nagar. The incident is alleged to have caused flooding in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, where three UPSC aspirants lost their lives. Passing the order, Judge Vinod Kumar of the Tis Hazari court noted that allegations against Manoj Kathuria are “serious in nature”
Kathuria was arrested Monday along with the owners of the coaching institute’s basement. His lawyer had moved the bail plea the same day.
Judge Kumar said that Kathuria was seen driving his Force Gurkha SUV, causing displacement of water at large scale, eventually leading to the water’s entry into the basement. The judge further noted that he did not pay attention to the warning given to him by passersby on the road.
“Perusal of the CCTV footage of the alleged incident shows that the accused can be seen driving the said vehicle on an already heavily waterlogged road at such a speed causing large displacement of water as a result of which the gate of the alleged premises gave way and the water went into the basement and consequently three innocent lives have been lost in the said incident. Perusal of CCTV footage prima facie shows that he is being tried to be warned of the dangers ahead by some passersby but he did not pay any heed. The allegations against the accused are serious in nature,” the order said.
“This Court has been apprised that investigation is still underway and the role of other civic agencies are also being thoroughly probed. The investigation is at its nascent stage. Keeping in view of facts and circumstances of the case as well as seriousness of the offences, the prayer of applicant/ accused seeking his enlargement on bail, appears to be untenable at this stage and as such the present application deserves to be dismissed. Accordingly, the present bail application is dismissed,” it added.
Apart from Kathuria’s, the court has also dismissed bail pleas of other accused persons — Parvinder Singh, Sarvjeet Singh, Harvinder Singh and Tejinder Singh.
Earlier, during the hearing Tuesday, Advocate Rakesh Malhotra, who is representing Kathuria, said that he did not have any knowledge of the possibility of the accident and was just driving through the road. He had added that the tragedy had struck because of the inaction of several government agencies such as the MCD, Delhi Fire Service and the Delhi Police.
Advocate Malhotra told ThePrint that he would challenge the lower court’s dismissal of bail plea in Sessions Court Thursday.
The lawyer representing Delhi Police had argued that Kathuria was “mastikhor” (fun-loving) whose deliberate act of overspeeding a vehicle through waterlogged roads caused the disaster.
Meanwhile, hearing a petition seeking high-level probe into the deaths of UPSC aspirants, the Delhi High Court pulled up the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the city’s poor drainage system and the Delhi Police for arresting a passerby driver — Kathuria.
“These incidents are happening everyday. It has become a joke. The MCD just doesn’t bother. Your officials are not accountable at the end of the day. It seems to us that they believe there is no point following the orders. There are more gains by not following the orders and the risk is worth it” the Acting Chief Justice Manmohan remarked.
“Not one person has gone to jail from MCD till now. What are the Delhi police doing? It has arrested some people driving a car over there. It seems that someone has lost it. The police officials who are probing this, what are they doing?” he asked.
The court has summoned the MCD commissioner, the central district deputy commissioner of police and the investigating officer to be present in court with all relevant files of the case.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhari)
The fault rests at least 95% with the administration. The driver didn’t create the conditions of waterlogging. He u n ass. But the institute doesn’t need to make waterproof gates and the MC needs to ensure that water ican be quickly and effectively drained.