Delhi court seeks CBI response on bail pleas of coaching centre co-owners

Students stage a protest over the death of three civil services aspirants. File Pic/PTI

A Delhi court has sent a notice to the CBI questioning the bail applications of four co-owners of a coaching centre basement where three civil service aspirants drowned recently.

Principal District and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna directed the central probe agency to respond by August 9, when the court will hear the accused's bail pleas: Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, and Sarbjit Singh, reported PTI.

According to the report, the judge stated that without a copy of the FIR, the court could not rule on the bail applications. The Delhi High Court recently shifted the investigation from the police to the CBI to ensure public trust in the investigation.

The notice was issued after the public prosecutor informed the court that the case transfer process from the Delhi Police to the CBI had not yet been completed and that the agency had not registered the case, the report added.

Per the PTI report, the accused, according to the defence lawyer, went to the police station freely on July 28 to participate in the inquiry and did not attempt to escape the law. He said that the charges against the accused - culpable homicide not amounting to murder and death by negligence - are contradictory. He asked for interim relief because the CBI had not yet registered the case.

The counsel told the judge, "The sections imposed on the four accused, who are just the land owners and had given the property on lease to Rau's IAS, are of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and death by negligence which are contradictory in nature."

Since the case has not been registered by the CBI yet, interim relief may be granted by the court, the PTI report cited the counsel for the accused as saying.

Delhi coaching centre deaths: CBI takes over probe

The CBI has taken over the investigation into the deaths of three candidates for the civil service at a Delhi coaching institution, said an official on Wednesday. Following a downpour on July 27, water gushed into the basement of Rau's IAS study circle in Old Rajinder Nagar of Delhi killing Shreya Yadav, 25, of Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni, 25, of Telangana, and Nevin Delvin, 24, of Kerala.

Following the Delhi High Court judgement, the case was transferred from Delhi Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The court expressed its inability to understand how the pupils could not escape the basement and chastised the Delhi Police Department and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the students' deaths. It also tried to find out if the staircases were narrow or if any entrances were obstructed.

With PTI inputs