The Delhi Police on Thursday told a court here that they have decided to drop harsher charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the SUV driver in the coaching centre death case.
The decision to drop the charge was conveyed by the investigating officer (IO) to Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Kumar who is hearing an appeal against the denial of bail to the SUV driver, Manuj Kathuria, by a magisterial court on Wednesday.
The judge has also reserved the order on the second bail plea of the driver, arrested for his alleged role in drowning of three civil services aspirants in the flooded basement of a coaching centre here.
The IO said, “During the further investigation, as carried out in the proceedings 48 hrs, it has transpired that the ingredients of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) is, at this stage, not being sufficiently established.”
Kathuria was 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 housing the coaching centre and inundate the basement.
Police have registered an FIR under the 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).