UPSC Aspirants Death: Owner, Coordinator Of Coaching Centre Arrested Amid Political Slugfest

New Delhi: Owner and coordinator of the coaching centre, Rau’s IAS Study Circle, at Old Rajender Nagar, where three students died due to flooding following heavy rains, have been arrested, DCP Central M Harshavardhan informed on Saturday.

Police identified the owner as Abhishek Gupta and the other accused as Deshpal Singh. They have been booked for culpable homicide among other charges. Additionally, a case has been registered under Sections 105, 106 (1), 115 (2), 290 and 35 of BNS. “This case is against the coaching institute and the management of the building and those who were responsible for the maintenance of the drain of that place,” the DCP was quoted as saying by ET.

Shreya Yadav, a 22-year-old civil service aspirant from Barsawa Hashimpur village in Ambedkar Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh, tragically lost her life along with two other students, Tanya Soni from Telangana and Navin Dalwin from Ernakulam in Kerala, after they were trapped inside the flooded basement of the coaching centre on Saturday evening.

Disaster rescue teams retrieved the bodies from the site after seven hours amid protests by students against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The irate students greeted all political leaders, including Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav and AAP MP Swati Maliwal, arriving at spot with “Go back” slogan and said that they won’t let them do politics over the issue.

Also Read: Students Protest After 3 Civil Services Aspirant Die In Coaching Centre Basement Flooding In Delhi

Preliminary investigation suggests that water suddenly started flooding the basement, which housed a library where several students were present.

Meanwhile, security has been increased outside RAU’s Study Circle.

BJP Blames AAP 

While Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi directed for strict action  against commercial activities being run in basements. Delhi BJP Chief Virendra Sachdeva slammed the AAP government, demanding an inquiry into the “corruption” within the MCD.

“There should be an inquiry into the corruption of Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi and their government… There should be an inquiry as to why the drainage was not cleaned. Will they order an inquiry into this?” he said, terming the incident as a “murder”.

Mounting the attack on the Delhi government, he said its previous assurances of investigating unsafe buildings following a similar incident in Mukherjee Nagar were either insufficient or nonexistent. “How a library was operating from a basement without proper authorisation,” he wondered.

Sachdeva also pointed fingers at the Delhi Fire Services and the Municipal Corporation, questioning their roles and responsibilities.

“This is not an accident, it is murder, it is criminal negligence… The question is, who will take the responsibility…There have been several deaths. Do the lives of the people of Delhi hold no value? Arvind Kejriwal and his government’s priority is press conferences, advertisements and blame games…AAP is responsible for this. AAP’s priority is to save Kejriwal from the liquor scam, but they don’t care about the lives of the residents of Delhi,” said BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla.

Mourning the death of 3 UPSC aspirants, Rahul Gandhi called it a “collective failure of the system.” “The death of competitive students due to waterlogging in the basement of a building in Delhi is very unfortunate. A few days ago, a student died due to electric shock during the rains. This collapse of infrastructure is a collective failure of the system,” he posted on X.

Meanwhile, Revenue Minister Atishi has directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to initiate an inquiry into the incident and submit a report within 24 hours. “A magisterial inquiry has been ordered to investigate how this incident happened. Whoever is responsible for this incident will not be spared,” she posted on X.

Other Reactions

Dedicated workers from the BJP repeatedly asked Durgesh Pathak to ensure that the sewers in this area are cleaned and de-silted. If that had been done, this tragedy would not have happened. You can see there’s 2-3 foot of water on the road, which inundated the basement. People are saying divers had to go in, so you can imagine how bad the situation is. The AAP government, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and MLA Durgesh Pathak are responsible for the tragedy and the death.

– Bansuri Swaraj, BJP MP from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency

The students are very sad and angry. It has been more than 12 hours, till now neither any minister of Delhi government has come, nor the mayor of MCD, nor any officer. I believe that these deaths are not a disaster, this is a murder, an FIR should be registered against all these big government officials. It is not yet known whether 3 have died or more have died. Compensation of Rs 1 crore should be given to all the students who have died…The minister, Mayor should come here immediately and apologize to them. Delhi will not run like this. I will raise this issue in Parliament. I will keep all the demands of students in Parliament… The students are saying that 12 days ago they had informed the councillor that the drain system here is bad, so the councillor and all the people above him should answer.

– AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal

…I do not want to politicise this whole issue but at the same time we have to see that today the (Delhi) government is proving to be a complete failure. It is not able to provide water, waterlogging is happening… Who permitted to run the institute in the basement? We should pay attention to this. Kejriwal ji continuously writes letters to maintain his position, but now we should also see the condition of Delhi today…His ministers are not able to do anything today. The situation is that the minister, who should have reached the spot immediately, has not reached there… We have said earlier also that if they are not able to run the government, then an all-party meeting should be called, discussions should be held and solutions to these problems should be found. The work is not going to be done with just a few hours of sympathy. The infrastructure of Delhi looks completely destroyed today and the attention of this government should be drawn towards this. They should take moral responsibility and if you see their entire tenure, they are continuously failing…

– Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav

The BJP’s councillors were in power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for 15 years but did not get drains constructed. This is not the time for politics.

– AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak