NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the death of three civil services aspirants due to drowning at the basement of an IAS coaching centre in the national capital last week.
“Having regard to the nature of the incident and to ensure that the public has no doubt with regard to the investigation, this court transfers the probe to the CBI,” a Bench led by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said, transferring the probe into the case from the Delhi Police to the CBI.
Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni and Nevin Dalvin, the three IAS aspirants, drowned after rainwater entered the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar , triggering protests by students/civil services aspirants, who demanded better safety measures at coaching centres and civic amenities. The Bench, which also included Justice Tushar Rao Gedel, asked the Central Vigilance Commission to appoint a senior officer to oversee the CBI probe.
The HC pulled up the Delhi Police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi over the drowning incident, saying it was unable to fathom how the students could not come out and sought to know if the doors were blocked or staircases were narrow. It ordered the removal of encroachments and unauthorised constructions, including on storm water and sewage drains, in the Rajinder Nagar area where the drowning incident took place.
With a rise in the population of Delhi, it needed a robust system and due to various subsidy schemes, the migration to Delhi was on the rise, the court noted. Emphasising the need for having a relook at Delhi’s administrative, financial and physical infrastructure, the Bench set up a committee headed by the Chief Secretary to deal with it. Administratively Delhi has a multiplicity of authorities, which only passed the buck and did nothing, it said, adding that the physical infrastructure of Delhi was nearly 75-year-old, which was inadequate and poorly maintained.
As the MCD Commissioner said the storm water drains in the area were dysfunctional, the Bench asked why his officials didn’t inform him about it earlier. The MCD officials were not bothered and it had become a norm, it said, adding, “The public perception is that the civic authorities are inefficient.”
The HC also took potshots at the Delhi Police, saying, “Mercifully, you have not challaned rainwater for entering the basement, the way you arrested the SUV driver for driving his car on the street there.” Manuj Kathuria was accused of driving his SUV through the street that was flooded by rainwater on July 27, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storey building housing the coaching centre and inundate the basement, where the three students were killed.