Coaching centre deaths: SUV driver's wife says he is a victim, not accused

New Delhi: Her husband is a victim and not an accused in the Rajinder Nagar incident, said the wife of Manuj Kathuria, who has been arrested in connection with the drowning of three IAS aspirants in the flooded basement of a coaching centre.

Kathuria, a businessman, was behind the wheels of an SUV which drove through the flooded street, causing the water to swell and breach the gates of the three-storey building and inundate the basement, according to police.

He is among the five arrested in connection with the case and his SUV has also been seized.

Kathuria's wife Shima told PTI that her husband had no idea about the gate breaking apart due to his car, adding that his arrest has created a "state of panic" for the family.

"The gate (of a coaching centre) cannot break like that. The gate must have weakened due to frequent waterlogging in the area," she said.

A city court here Tuesday reserved its order on Kathuria's bail plea.

"We are very positive. My husband has not done anything wrong. We have full faith in the judicial system and I am sure that the court will take the right decision," she said.

Shima said it was on Sunday evening that the police arrived at their residence around 5.30 pm and told the family that they had come to question Manuj in connection with the Rajinder Nagar coaching centre deaths.

"The police said there is no criminal liability and they were just taking him for questioning since his vehicle was visible in the viral video captured around that time (when the water gushed in)," she added.

"Around 30 minutes later, my father-in-law got a call from him saying he had been arrested. It created a state of panic among us," Manuj's wife recalled.

She added that it was only on Sunday morning that she got to know that three lives were lost in the tragic incident.

"We were not even handed over the FIR copy till the bail hearing," Shima claimed.

"Our legal counsel has made several requests. I would like to refer to my husband as a victim and not an accused," she alleged.

Shima said her husband has been accused of rash driving by the police. She said, "Displaced water could have been hitting the gates earlier also. The water displaced by my husband's car must have been the final straw and it must have weakened the gate, causing it to break." Rubbishing the charges of rash driving, she claimed that the video "clearly" shows that the brake lights of the vehicle were switched on.

"He was driving in first gear on the waterlogged road. The car cannot be driven at a speed of 5 km/hour in that situation. But it was not speeding either; it must have been somewhere at 15 km/hr or 20 km/hr. He was applying brakes constantly and not speeding his SUV," she said.

"The car would have stalled had he stopped. He did not know which buildings he crossed. He was making sure that he was driving straight and not hitting someone. We had never been to those institutes, nor knew how they are operating" Manuj's wife said.

She added that the car might have crossed several buildings on the waterlogged street but it was only the said coaching centre whose gate broke due to breached water.

Shima said the incident occurred when her husband had gone to Karol Bagh Metro Station to drop two of his accountants since it was raining incessantly.

"We had taken our dog for a walk to the nearby Ridge area. We were just about to get home when it started raining incessantly. My father-in-law called and asked my husband to drop our two accountants off at the metro station. When we returned, I got down and my husband left to drop them, " she recalled.

Three civil services aspirants died on Saturday evening after water from a flooded drain gushed into the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar where a library was set up.