My husband is a victim, not accused: wife of SUV driver held in coaching centre deaths case

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.

New Delhi: "My husband has not done anything wrong. I would like to refer to my husband as a victim and not an accused," says Shima, 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, drove his SUV through the flooded street in Old Rajinder Nagar, causing the water to swell, breach the gates of the coaching centre building and inundate the basement, according to police.

He is among the seven people arrested so far in the case.

Shima told PTI that her husband had no idea about the gate of the coaching centre breaking due to his car.

"A gate cannot break like that. It must have weakened due to frequent waterlogging in the area," 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, causing it to break," she added.

Shima said her family is in a "state of panic" since her husband's arrest but they have complete faith in the judicial system.

"We are very positive. We have full faith in the judicial system and I am sure that the court will take the right decision," she said.

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

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

"Police said there was no criminal liability and they were taking him for questioning since his vehicle was seen in a viral video captured around that time (when the water gushed in the coaching centre)," she said.

"Around 30 minutes later, my father-in-law received a call from him (Manuj) saying he had been arrested," she added.

Shima said the family got to know on Sunday morning that three lives were lost in the tragic incident.

"We were not even given a copy of the FIR till the bail hearing. Our legal counsel made several requests," she claimed.

Shima said her husband has been accused of rash driving by police but the video clearly shows that the brake lights of the vehicle were on at the time of the incident.

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

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

Shima said her husband's car might have crossed several buildings on the waterlogged street but it was only the said coaching centre's gate that broke.

She said the incident occurred when her husband had gone to drop two of his accountants at Karol Bagh metro station amid the rain.

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