Delhi court reserves bail applications from accused

NEW DELHI: Delhi's Tis Hazari court is expected to pronounce its verdict on August 23 on the bail pleas of four jailed co-owners of a basement of a coaching centre where three civil servant aspirants drowned last month.

Chief District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna reserved the order on Saturday after hearing arguments from both the CBI and the accused – Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh and Sarbjit Singh.
During the trial, the defendant argued that the incident was an “act of God” that could have been avoided if the authorities had performed their duties. “It was an act of God that happened and it could have been avoided if the authorities had performed their onerous duties, which they failed miserably to do,” the defendant's lawyer explained.

The defense attorney claimed that the basement was not a library but a waiting area for students before classes began. He claimed that a fire department inspection conducted a few days before the incident found that the basement was being used as a storage area and deemed the building safe and suitable for the operation of an educational center.
The lawyer further argued that in order to apply the section for intentional killing, which is not considered murder, there must be both the intention to commit the crime and knowledge of its possible consequences. “Where is the intention? If I rented the property because I thought it would rain one day and lead to death, there must be a clear proximate connection,” he added.

He also stressed that to establish negligence, a direct link between the acts and the deaths is required. The accused's lawyer stated that the four people did not evade arrest but voluntarily reported themselves to the police after learning about the incident. The Delhi High Court recently transferred the investigation into the deaths in the basement of the training centre in Old Rajinder Nagar from the police to the CBI “to ensure that the public is not left with any doubts about the investigation.”