Delhi's Tiz Hazari Court on Thursday granted to bail to SUV driver Manuj Kathuria, who drove through a waterlogged road leading to the collapse of the gate of the coaching centre in which three UPSC aspirants died due to a flooded basement.
Kathuria was arrested by the Delhi Police in connection to the case that was linked to the deaths of the aspirants in the basement of the Rau's IAS Study Circle building in central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar area.
The development comes just a day after a Delhi court rejected the bail plea of SUV driver, who is a businessman. Kathuria was among the seven people arrested in the case so far.
The court also rejected the bail of four arrested basement co-owners of Rau's IAS Study Circle in Rajinder Nagar.
Notably, Kathuria drove his Mahindra 'Thar' through the flooded street in Old Rajinder Nagar, causing the water to further swell and breach the gates of the coaching centre and swamp the basement, police had said. A video of the same also went viral on social media.
Blamed for the deaths of the three students, Kathuria on Tuesday sought bail, saying that he did not have the knowledge of what was going to happen, or any intention to cause the incident.
Earlier in court, the SUV driver's advocate in his defence had asked, "Delhi Police arresting people not related to the case; how can I be blamed for the incident?"
Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava, however, had said that Kathuria was not guilty of "contributory negligence" but he aggravated the incident.
The APP played in court a few videos taken from Kathuria's social media accounts, showing him driving the same SUV, and said, "I am sorry to use this term. But he is mastikhor aur masti mein inhone ye sab kar diya... In having fun he caused the incident."
Notably, the tragic deaths of the civil services aspirants sparked massive outrage, leading to protests by students and action by authorities which further resulted in the sealing of several illegally-run basements of coaching centres.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been conducting sealing drives in Old Rajinder Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar and Preet Vihar and other such areas of the national capital where such establishments are found.
