Rau's IAS Study Circle, a premier coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar – one of the numerous such centres in the area – had four floors, a parking space and a basement which housed a library. In the evening of July 27, 2024, 30-35 students were attending an online session in the basement library when all hell broke loose. Around 7 pm, with the roads outside flooded amid heavy rains in the city and roadside drains clogged, floodwater started gushing inside the basement. But three UPSC aspirants – Shreya Yadav (25), Tanya Soni (25) and Nevin Dalvin (28) – got trapped inside for hours. ADVERTISEMENTTurns out, the centre's owner lied about the basement, the biometric system turned off due to waterlogging and civic authorities failed to clear the roadside drain before the onset of monsoon.

Source: The Telegraph July 31, 2024 13:29 UTC