Coaching centre deaths: Owners of basement move Delhi High Court seeking bail

New Delhi: The jailed co-owners of the Old Rajinder Nagar coaching centre basement, where three civil services aspirants died after drowning last month, have moved the Delhi High Court seeking bail in the criminal case against them.

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.

The matter is likely to be heard this week.

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 July 27 evening.

A sessions court has earlier rejected the bail applications moved by the co-owners of the basement -- Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh and Sarbjit Singh-- saying the CBI probe was at an initial stage and their specific roles had to be ascertained.

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

In the application filed in the high court, one of the co-owners said the trial court, while denying them bail, failed to consider that the co-owners had let out the basement and the third floor of the building on lease for running the coaching centre, an activity permissible under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) norms, and they never intended to commit such an offence nor had any knowledge of it.

"The applicant is merely the landlord and does not play any role whatsoever in the management or day to day business of the tenants. The applicant had let out the property on rental basis to RAU'S IAS STUDY CIRCLE vide lease deed dated 05.01.2022 for a period of 9 years commencing from 01.01.2022," said the plea.

"The subject property was given on lease to Mr. Abhishek Kumar Gupta vide lease dated 05.01.2022 for running a coaching centre. It is pertinent to mention that as per the lease deed the lessee is responsible for procuring necessary permissions from local authorities like DDA, MCD and other local authorities for running the coaching centre within permissible parameters," it added.

The bail application said the trial court did not consider the fact that the co-owners, who have not been named in the FIR, acted as good samaritans as they voluntarily went to the police station and subjected themselves to the custody of the investigating officer after the incident, which clearly shows their bonafide.

On August 23, the trial court had rejected their bail applications and said it was not necessary that the exact happening or precise incident must be in the knowledge of the offender to invoke the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

It had also said that the issue of violation of building byelaws and encroachment over the drainage (in the area) also needed to be probed, while noting that a month prior to the incident, Kishore Singh Kushwaha, a resident of Karol Bagh, had complained to authorities, specifically against Rau's IAS Study Circle for running a classroom in the basement without permission.

The trial court had said the fact that the applicants themselves surrendered before police was not enough to enlarge them on bail when the CBI investigation was "at its initial and crucial stage", when "important evidence" was being collected and at the point where witnesses were being examined.

It had nonetheless opined that the four joint owners of the basement were not "exclusively responsible" for the incident.

"The role of MCD officers who kept the matter of illegal use of the basement pending without taking any action, more particularly not paying attention to the recent complaint of Kishore Singh Kushwaha speaks volume about their complicity. This court sincerely hopes that CBI would deeply and thoroughly investigate the matter and bring all culprits to the book," it had said.