Rush of rainwater ruined everything, heavy rain flooded IAS coaching institute in Delhi

An SUV's waves breached the iron gate of the institute, allowing rainwater to flood the basement and tragically trap three students who could not escape.

BJP councillors protest inside the MCD House over the death of three civil services aspirants in the Old Rajinder Nagar area on Monday. Photo | Shekhar yadav

NEW DELHI: It started with a heavy spell of rain on Saturday that lashed several parts of the national capital, including the Rajinder Nagar area which bore witness to the death of three civil services aspirants. The three IAS aspirants were Shreya Yadav of Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni from Telangana, and Navin Dalwin from Kerala.

All of them, along with at least 30 more students, were studying in the library of Rau’s IAS coaching institute. In the pin-drop silence, students could hear the pitter-patter of rain.

“The rainwater is coming inside. Evacuate the library immediately,” an eyewitness, recounting the horror, said. They even said it took the rainwater mere 10 minutes to partially fill the basement of at least 12 feet in height.

The question is from where did such a massive volume of water from?

It is important to first picture the outside of the institute before understanding what happened inside the basement. There is a wide road outside the institute with ample space to move traffic. Coaching institutes are adjacent to it while a shopping complex is exactly on the opposite side.

Police personnel stand guard during an anti-encroachment drive conducted by the MCD in Old Rajinder Nagar on Monday.Photo | Parveen Negi

The institute’s building is surrounded with at least 4-ft tall cement walls with a black iron gate in the middle.

On the day of the incident, it was raining cats and dogs. The road was submerged in around 3-ft deep water. The traffic came to a standstill while people outside took shelter in different buildings. Around 6.45 pm, an SUV waded through the rainwater, generating big and strong waves which crashed into the iron gate of the institute, thereby breaking it down.

The gate was probably blocking the rainwater from entering inside the basement.

All of this was recorded on camera by an onlooker. When the water began gushing into the basement area, a hue and cry was raised and the occupants started rushing out. Most of them evacuated but three students were left behind.

The police were intimated who reached the place of incident within no time. The fire brigade rushed 7 rescue vehicles; however, they had drowned in the submerged basement.