Coaching Centre Deaths: SUV Driver Granted Bail After Police Drops Culpable Homicide Charge

New Delhi: In a relief for the SUV driver involved in the case of Old Rajinder Nagar coaching center deaths, a Delhi sessions court granted bail to Manuj Kathuria after police dropped the culpable homicide charge against him. 

Delhi Police told the session courts that it has dropped the culpable homicide charge against Manuj Kathuria who has been apprehended in the case. 

While submitting before the court, police said at this stage, they didn't have sufficient evidence to establish charges against Kathuria under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (culpable homicide).

Police Not Pressing Culpable Homicide Charges

The police further told the court that his involvement can be assessed only after an IIT Delhi expert team visits the spot and submits a report post-inspection.

Delhi's Tis Hazari court on Thursday pronounced its order on the bail plea of Manuj Kathuria, an SUV driver accused in the deaths of three UPSC aspirants at a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar.

The counsel for the accused submitted that now all offences are bailable.  This plea follows the Tis Hazari court's dismissal on Wednesday of bail applications from Kathuria and four others involved in the case.

While dismissing the bail plea, Judicial Magistrate First Class Vinod Kumar observed, "Perusal of CCTV footage of the alleged incident shows that the driver can be seen driving the said vehicle at already heavily waterlogged road at a speed that causes a large displacement of water, as a result of which the gate of the alleged premises gave way and water went into the basement, and three innocent lives have been lost in the said incident."

"Perusal of CCTV footage prima Facie shows that he is being tried to be warned of the danger ahead by a passerby but he did not pay any heed," the Judicial Magistrate said in the order passed on July 31.

Notably, the accused Manuj Kathuria, is a businessman, and was driving his sports utility vehicle (SUV) through a rain-flooded street in central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar, allegedly causing water to surge and breach the gates of the three-storey Rau's IAS Study Circle building, flooding its basement and causing the deaths of three UPSC aspirants.

Delhi police arrested seven people so far, including a driver of an SUV vehicle, on Monday in connection with the deaths of three students in basement flooding at a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar.