Bail application by co-owners of basement in training centre: HC demands response from CBI

The court said the case at hand was “no ordinary case” and landlords should think four times before renting out their properties. | Image credit: Archive photo

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to grant the bail pleas of the detained co-owners of the basement of the Old Rajinder Nagar training centre, where three civil service aspirants drowned and died in July.

Three civil services aspirants – Shreya Yadav, 25, from Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni, 25, from Telangana and Nevin Delvin, 24, from Kerala – died when the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle was flooded with rainwater on the evening of July 27.

The Delhi Police had arrested the basement's co-owners — Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh and Sarbjit Singh — following the deaths under various sections of the BNS, including Section 105 (intentional killing not amounting to murder). The case was subsequently handed over to the CBI.

The defendant's defense attorney acknowledged that it was a “sad” incident, but stressed that his client had only rented the basement and another floor to the training center and therefore could not be held liable for the deaths.

The lawyer added that when the four brothers rented the basement to Rau's IAS study group, they did not expect that anyone would die there. The four defendants have been in custody for almost six weeks.

The court stated that the present case was “not a normal case” and that landlords should think twice before renting out their properties.

“Why did such a thing happen? You have to think about that too. Tell me what steps should be taken so that such a thing does not happen again in future. This should not be a common case,” said Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma.

The court asked the CBI's counsel to provide “concrete evidence” regarding the liability of the basement co-owners and wanted to know whether any action had been taken against the officials concerned.

The CBI counsel said that the agency was probing the authorities regarding the flooding in the area, which a person had earlier pointed out while expressing fear that such a tragedy could occur there.

“Was MCD asleep? Why didn't they seal it? What did the police do?” the court said.

The accused’s counsel claimed that the CBI “did not contact a single deputy commissioner of the MCD” in this case.

The court has scheduled the case for further hearing on September 11.