Coaching centre deaths: Bail to SUV driver, court cites police ‘overenthusiasm’

Manuj Kathuria, the SUV driver who was arrested in connection with the death of three civil service aspirants in a coaching centre in Delhi, was granted bail on Thursday.

In its order, a sessions court said the police, in “overenthusiasm”, accused him of culpable homicide, a charge which was later dropped.

Kathuria was arrested on July 29 in connection with the death of three students who drowned in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody on culpable homicide charge.

The police had accused Kathuria of driving his Force Gurkha car through the street that was flooded by rainwater, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storey building and inundate the basement.

On Wednesday, a magistrate’s court denied bail to Kathuria, saying the video footage “prima facie” showed that he was warned by some passersby not to drive fast on the flooded road but he did not pay heed.

Today, Kathuria moved Sessions Court at Tis Hazari challenging the Magistrate Court’s order denying him bail.

In his bail plea, Kathuria claimed he was innocent and the police did not have material to support any allegations against him. “The blame of state wide infrastructural breakdown is being put on a single individual,” he said in his petition.

During the hearing, the police admitted before the court that they did not have sufficient evidence to establish charges against Kathuria under Section 105 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (culpable homicide). The police, subsequently, dropped the charge against him.

“The police itself has admitted in its written reply that in the investigation so far, a case of culpable homicide under Section 105 of BNS (culpable homicide) does not stand against the SUV driver. The rest of the sections under which Manuj Kathuria has been made an accused are all bailable sections,” the court said.