September 6, the 12‑storey Satya Niketan collapsed over a boys’ hostel, leaving seven dead, five of them students, and several injured. The sudden fall sent a shock through Delhi University’s South Campus, where the building had been used as a paying‑guest accommodation.
The Delhi Police’s status report filed on September 21 alleges that the owners, who had no land‑use conversion permission and had not engaged a qualified structural engineer, added a basement and upper‑storey structure without authorisation. That unregulated work increased the load on an already fragile framework, the report says, creating a lethal risk that the owners ignored.
Six accused were arrested after the incident, including the Guptas, contractor Sanoj and hostel operators Shubham Tyagi and Sudhanshu Lovenish Kumar. The police note that the contractor hired two untrained labourers and the hostel managers failed to warn residents about ongoing repairs, thereby compounding the danger.
The Delhi High Court, in a ruling on September 7, ordered a high‑level Municipal Corporation of Delhi inquiry and made it clear that the government cannot evade responsibility. The bench, led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, will hear the case on Friday while retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi seeks to join the proceedings to expose systemic lapses in PG hostel regulation. Meanwhile, a grieving mother of a student who perished in the collapse has called for stricter enforcement of safety norms in all student housing across the city.