Strange probe: Delhi HC grills police in coaching centre incident

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up authorities over the deaths of three UPSC aspirants who drowned in the basement of a coaching centre, saying such tragedies are bound to happen when there is no collection of taxes due to a “freebies culture”.

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said a “strange probe” was going on with police action against the passerby who drove a car but no action against MCD officials.

The court said multi-storey buildings were being allowed to operate but there was no proper drainage.

“You want to have freebies culture, don’t want to collect taxes… this is bound to happen,” the bench, also comprising Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, said.

Also read: Delhi coaching centre deaths: Don’t want compensation, only action, says Kin of victim

Taking a swipe at authorities, the court said they need to build infrastructure but are bankrupt and can’t even pay salaries.

The court was hearing a plea seeking a high-level committee to investigate the deaths of three civil service aspirants in the basement of a flooded coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar on the evening of July 27.

The three who died were Shreya Yadav (25) of Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana and Nevin Delvin (24) from Kerala.

Meanwhile, remembering Nevin Delvin as a bright student, his uncle sought answers on the Delhi coaching centre flooding incident last week that killed his nephew and two other civil services aspirants.

Delvin (28) is survived by his parents and younger sister. His mother Lanclet Delvin, a professor in Kochi, had to be hospitalised after she learnt about her son’s passing.

His father Delvin Suresh retired as an assistant commissioner of police and his younger sister is a graduate student.

“Everyone had huge expectations from him. We learnt about the incident on Sunday morning and there has been an atmosphere of grief at home since then. His mother has not been able to process the loss and is in hospital,” Delvin’s uncle Linu Raj said.

Delvin came to Delhi four years ago to pursue his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and enrolled in Rau’s IAS Study Circle in May to pursue his dream of becoming a civil servant.

Also read: Delhi Police registers FIR, forms teams to probe coaching centre flooding incident

“He was extremely calm, kind and a bright student,” his uncle said outside the RML Hospital mortuary.

Delvin’s post-mortem was conducted on Monday and his body handed over to his family. His uncle will take the body to his village in Thiruvananthapuram.

As he waited for the handover, Raj spoke to police officers.

He could be heard asking them about the reasons behind the tragedy, the progress of the probe and the shortcomings in the building plan.

The investigators assured him that they were probing into the incident and urged him not to worry.

Raj said his only demand was action against coaching institutes so that similar incidents did not recur.

“What will we do with compensation? Nevin (Delvin) won’t return. We just want action to be taken so that young lives are not lost in the future,” he said.

Delvin’s friends from JNU were also present to console his family members.

One of them, Annu, said, “I have lost a close friend. He was studious and ambitious.”

“He would have achieved something really big in life,” he said.