Coaching centre deaths: Court grants bail to SUV driver after cops drop culpable homicide charge
New Delhi, Aug 1: A court here on Thursday allowed the second bail plea of an SUV driver, arrested for his alleged role in drowning of three civil services aspirants in the basement of a coaching centre.
During the proceedings, the Delhi Police told the court that they have decided to drop harsher charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Manuj Kathuria, the SUV driver.
Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Kumar was hearing an appeal against the denial of bail to Kathuria by a magisterial court on Wednesday.
"The bail is allowed," the judge said.
A detailed order of the court is awaited.
Kathuria was accused 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 housing the coaching centre and inundate the basement.
During the proceedings, the Delhi police told the court that they have decided to drop 'culpable homicide not amounting to murder' charge against Kathuria.
"During the further investigation, as carried out in the preceding 48 hours, it has transpired that the ingredients of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) is, at this stage, not being sufficiently established," the investigating officer (IO) said in his reply to the appeal.
"The same can be better assessed when the expert team from IIT-Delhi visits the spot and post inspection, submits its findings. Thus, as of now, the primary offence against the accused is of Sec 281 BNS (rash driving or riding on public way) for which the court may kindly pass appropriate orders as deemed fit," the IO added.
On Wednesday, terming the offence as "serious", the magisterial court had denied bail to Kathuria, saying the plea was "untenable at this stage".
The denial of bail by the magisterial court came hours after a Delhi High Court bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan castigated the police for its "strange" probe by arresting the driver.
"What is Delhi Police doing? Have they lost it? What are its officials who are monitoring the probe doing? This is a cover up or what?" the high court said in the forenoon while hearing a PIL seeking a probe into the incident.
Kathuria was arrested on Monday along with four co-owners of the basement.
On Sunday, a magisterial court had sent to 14-day judicial custody Rau's IAS Study Circle owner Abhishek Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh.
Police have registered an FIR under the BNS sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106(1) (death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide), 115(2) (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings).
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
