Coaching centre deaths: Delhi HC seeks CBI stand on basement owners' bail pleas

The Delhi High Court on Thursday, 5 September sought the stand of the CBI on the bail pleas of jailed co-owners of the Old Rajinder Nagar coaching centre basement, where three civil services aspirants died after drowning in July.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued notice to the agency on the bail applications of the co-owners of the basement -- Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh and Sarbjit Singh -- and asked it to file its reply.

"The incident was very unfortunate," said Justice Sharma, while adding that the present matter "should not be an ordinary case".

The court asked the CBI counsel to "give concrete evidence" with respect to the accountability of the basement co-owners and also permitted the father of one of the deceased aspirants to file a "short reply" to the bail pleas.

Three civil service aspirants Shreya Yadav, 25, of Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni, 25, from Telangana and Nevin Delvin, 24, from Kerala died after the basement of the building housing Rau's IAS Study Circle was flooded following heavy rain in central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar on 27 July evening.

The case, being probed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), was transferred from the Delhi Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the high court.

The four co-owners have pleaded that they are merely the landlords of the basement which was let out on rent to the coaching centre and therefore had no role in the unfortunate event.

A sessions court earlier rejected the bail applications moved by the accused, saying the CBI probe was at an initial stage and their specific roles had to be ascertained.

The matter would be heard next on 11 September.