Three civil services aspirants died due to sudden flooding at a basement library in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar, which houses many coaching centres for candidates preparing for UPSC exams. Amid student protests seeking accountability, there has been a war of words between the AAP government in Delhi and the BJP, a police probe, and an MCD crackdown on illegal buildings.

Meanwhile, the deceased have been identified as Shreya Yadav, a 25-year-old from Ambedkar Nagar, Tanya Soni, a 25-year-old from Telangana and Naveen Dalvin, a 28-year-old from Kerala. While Shreya and Tanya were students at Rau’s IAS Study Circle, which operated the library in the basement in violation of norms, Naveen was a JNU student who had gone to study at the spot.

Eyewitnesses told Newslaundry that several students were writing a test in the basement when it suddenly flooded following heavy rain. There was no emergency exit. By the time an NDRF rescue team arrived, three were already dead while 14 students were rescued.

The three-storey structure’s building plan falsely showed the basement as a store room. And police have arrested the owner and coordinator of Rau’s IAS Study Circle. DCP (Central) M Harshvardhan said, “The owner and coordinator of the coaching centre have been arrested. An FIR has been registered against the owner, coordinator and responsible authorities under relevant sections.”

The authorities are now cleaning the drains in the locality, which saw a persistent waterlogging problem.

A student at the coaching institute said there is only one narrow staircase to go to the basement and “no other entry or exit gate”.

But it’s not the only such case in the locality. Newslaundry found several other coaching institutes, libraries and PGs being operated from basements in the area. Students and families of the victims told us what they felt.

Watch.