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Order on SUV driver’s bail today; police quiz coaching centre owner’s father-in-law
Four MCD officials asked to join probe; wife of coaching institute’s owner likely to be questioned; Sanjay Singh seeks law to regulate coaching centres; BJP says AAP ‘misled’ on cleaning of drains
A court here will pronounce on Wednesday its order on the bail pleas of an SUV driver and owners of the Old Rajinder Nagar coaching centre basement where three Civil Services aspirants drowned after rainwater flooded it.
The order will be pronounced at 4 p.m.
SUV driver Manoj Kathuria and basement owners Tejinder Singh, Parvinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, and Sarabjit Singh are among seven persons arrested in the case. The other two are Rau’s IAS Study Circle owner Abhishek Gupta and institute coordinator Deshpal Singh.
Mr. Kathuria has been accused of driving his SUV through the street that was flooded by rainwater, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storeyed institute and inundate its basement.
Advocate Rakesh Malhotra, representing Mr. Kathuria, said his client did not have the intention to cause the incident. “What is the cause of the unfortunate incident? One, running a library in the place marked as something else and two, the failure of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Jal Board etc. to prevent waterlogging,” he said.
Citing a complaint of a city resident, he said the authorities knew that a library was being run in the basement against rules.
However, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava said Mr. Kathuria was not guilty of “contributory negligence”, but of “aggravating” the incident.
Meanwhile, the police quizzed V.P. Singh, the father-in-law of the coaching centre owner and asked four MCD officials to join the probe. “We asked V.P. Singh about the ownership rights of the coaching centre since he had transferred these to his daughter and son-in-law,” said an officer, adding that they might quiz Mr. Gupta’s wife too.
MCD seals basements
The MCD also sealed the basements of seven coaching centres. With this, the civic body has now cracked down on 29 basements since Sunday.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a law to regulate coaching institutes.
The BJP too protested at Rajghat, holding the AAP-led MCD responsible for the incident.
Mr. Singh told the PM that coaching centres charge exorbitant fee from students and earn profit by providing basic facilities in “dilapidated buildings”. “It is a humble request to you that a proper Central law be made immediately to crack down on the coaching mafia…,” he said.
However, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva slammed the AAP government, saying that till July 27, the day of the incident, ruling party leaders had been claiming that all drains in the Capital had been cleaned.
“They have now taken a U-turn with Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj saying that the desilting of drains could not be done as officials were not responding to AAP leaders,” he said.
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judiciary (system of justice)