Three dead in Delhi IAS coaching centre flood

The basement was eight feet below the ground level and several students were present in it on Saturday evening when it got flooded. All but Tania Soni, Shreya Yadav – both 25 – and Navin Delvin (28) managed to get out in time.

The three bodies were recovered past midnight after a seven-hour rescue operation.

Delhi Fire Services chief Atul Garg said that there was no option to de-water the basement.

The three-storey coaching centre had its building plan approved by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) department in 2021 by falsely showing that it was being used as a store room, as per the building plan and the No Objection Certificate (NOC) of the fire department.

“The building has fire NOC, but in the NOC they had shown the basement as a store room. The management of the institute was using the same room as a classroom or library which is a violation of the NOC,” Mr Garg said.

Locals say that there are several other coaching institutions in the area which operate from the basement.