Delhi coaching centre deaths: Bail to owners of Rau’s basement extended | Latest News Delhi
The Delhi high court on Friday extended until January 21 the interim bail granted to the four co-owners of the Old Rajendra Nagar coaching centre basement, where three IAS aspirants drowned in July following severe flooding.
The victims — Tanya Soni, Shreya Yadav, and Nevin Delvin — were students at Rau’s IAS Study Circle, which was operating an unauthorised library in the building’s basement. The three IAS aspirants drowned after the building’s basement flooded following heavy rain.
The four co-owners of the building —Sarabjeet Singh, Tejinder Singh, Harinder Singh, and Parminder Singh — were apprehended on July 28, a day after the tragedy. Initially handled by the Delhi Police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the probe of the case on August 2.
A bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma extended their interim bail under the same terms and conditions, despite objections from the CBI and the father of one of the victims, Nevin Delvin. Both parties urged the court to reject the plea, citing concerns about witness influence and ongoing investigation into potential corruption involving civic body officials.
While, CBI opposed the extension contending that though it had filed the charge sheet, further investigation in the case was still underway looking into the matters related to corrupt practices entered into by any persons, including public servants of civic bodies.
In its reply filed on November 28, the probe agency had asserted that there was sufficient evidence to show that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the four co-owners had committed the offence and the possibility of them influencing the witnesses could not be ruled out.
Meanwhile, Delvin’s father opposed the extension contending that the Supreme Court in the catena of rulings had held that interim bail cannot be extended for an indefinite period and has to be extended for a specific period.
In their petition filed through advocates Kaushal Kait and Gaurav Dua, the co-owners had sought for extension of interim bail for two months asserting that CBI had completed the investigation and had also filed the charge sheet in the matter.
It added that did not flout any bail conditions imposed by the court and instead the Supreme Court on November 8 had also stayed the condition regarding depositing ₹5 crore to the Red Cross Society.
In October, the CBI informed the high court that its charge sheet excluded the name of the driver, Manoj Kathuria, due to insufficient evidence of criminality.
On Friday, the same bench also stayed a city court order directing the coaching centre’s CEO, Abhishek Gupta, to deposit ₹2.5 crore with the Red Cross Society.
