'Have they lost it?' Delhi High Court on police arresting SUV driver for coaching centre deaths

New Delhi: "Have they lost it?" That was the Delhi High Court's poser on Wednesday as it pulled up Delhi Police for its "strange probe" against an SUV driver arrested for his alleged role in the drowning of three IAS aspirants at a coaching centre.

The strong words of the high court, however, did not come to the rescue of jailed SUV driver whose bail plea was dismissed by a magisterial court later in the day.

Judicial Magistrate Vinod Kumar rejected the bail plea of five accused, including SUV driver Manuj Kathuria, who was termed to be a "masti-khor" (fun lover) by the Delhi Police in their vehement opposition to his bail plea.

In the high court, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said a "strange probe" was going on with the Delhi Police taking action against a man who drove a car outside the coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar here but not acting against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials.

"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 court said.

The bench said the police have arrested a bystander or some person who was driving the car over there. It asked whether some official (of MCD) has been held accountable for the incident till now.

"We are telling you, once the responsibility is fixed on officials, no such incident will ever happen in future," the bench said.

The high court was hearing a plea by an organisation, Kutumb, seeking constitution of a high-level committee to investigate the deaths of the three civil service aspirants on the evening of July 27.

During the hearing, the bench allowed an oral prayer of the petitioner's advocate Rudra Vikram Singh to implead Delhi Police as a party to the petition.

"Where is the police? Who is investigating this matter? They are trying to get hold of any passerby or driver and saying this happened because you drove a car.

"Has any official been caught or interrogated? Have they interrogated the official who has not de-silted this drain? Was the drain de-silted properly and in time?” the court asked and said "some sort of very strange investigation is going on".

The court hinted at asking a central agency to probe the incident and directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner, deputy commissioner of police concerned and the investigating officer (IO) of the case to appear before it on Friday.

It said this was strange that no MCD official has been hauled up till now.

"We don’t know whether the IO has seen the de-silting plan or the approved building construction plan. We have no idea whether he has done that or whether he has investigated the role of MCD officials," the bench said.

The counsel for the Delhi government said he would take instructions from IO on the status of investigation and on the queries raised by the court and apprise it on Friday.

Kathuria has been 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, where Rau's IAS Study Circle was being run, and inundate the basement.

The police have registered an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (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).