‘Paid fee with loan, wanted her to stand on own feet’ — father of UPSC aspirant who died in flooding

Shreya Yadav’s father, a dairy farmer by profession in UP’s Ambedkar Nagar district, said she joined Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar for UPSC prep in April this year.

File photo of Shreya Yadav | By special arrangement

New Delhi: She used to call after 7 PM each evening to let us know how she was doing, said the father of Shreya Yadav, a 25-year-old UPSC aspirant who died Saturday evening as a result of flooding in the basement of the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar.

The family, based in Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar district, said they weren’t alarmed at first when Shreya did not call on 27 July, and learnt about her death only from her uncle later in the evening.

We took out a loan to pay the coaching centre fee, Shreya’s father Rajender Yadav, a dairy farmer by profession, told ThePrint, adding that nothing those responsible for her death say or do can bring his daughter back.

As ThePrint reported earlier, Shreya, and two other aspirants who were preparing for the civil services entrance examination, drowned after flood water inundated the basement of the four-storey building Saturday evening.

Delhi Police have arrested the owner and coordinator of the coaching centre under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (1) (death by negligence), 115 (2) (causing hurt voluntarily), 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings, etc.) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).

‘Wanted her to stand on her own feet’

Speaking to ThePrint Sunday, her father said that after Shreya earned her Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Agriculture degree from Kamla Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences in Sultanpur, she decided to prepare for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

“My father always used to say education is the only mode of empowerment for anyone. I worked hard to get my younger brother educated and I was trying to follow the same approach with Shreya. We wanted her to stand on her own feet,” said a distraught Yadav.

Shreya’s uncle Dharmendra Yadav, a professor and spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party (SP), was the first to inform the family of the tragedy.

Based in Noida, he was also her local guardian.

“She (Shreya) always used to call only after 7 PM every day to talk to her mother. We did not find it problematic and got to know about the accident only when Dharmendra saw it on TV that three students drowned at the institute where our Shreya had taken admission,” said Rajender Yadav.

Dharmendra went to the hospital and identified her body, he added.

Yadav said Shreya took admission at the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in April. The coaching centre initially asked for Rs 1,80,00 as fee, but we negotiated for Rs 1,65,00 to be paid in three instalments and they agreed, he added.

However, Yadav alleged that the coaching centre later started pressuring Shreya into making the full payment and the family took out a loan on their credit card to pay the full amount just five days ago.

“All of them, from the coaching centre running a library in the basement to civic authorities who did not stop it, are responsible for the loss of my daughter. No words or action by them now can bring her back,” he said.

Pradeep, a relative of Tanya Soni, another student who died at the coaching centre, told media persons assembled outside the mortuary at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital that the family has sought a thorough inspection of all coaching centres in Old Rajinder Nagar.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Nevin Delvin, the third aspirant who died, had enrolled at the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar last September. A batchmate confirmed to ThePrint that Nevin was a PhD scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)