Coaching centre deaths: Ex-CEO gets bail relief

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to the former CEO of Rau's IAS Study Circle, Abhishek Gupta, and coordinator Deshpal Singh in a case related to the drowning of three UPSC aspirants in the basement of the coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar in July last year.
The court of principal district and sessions judge Anju Bajaj Chandna granted bail to the accused on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties of the like amount. Till now, they were on interim bail.
On Sept 23, a Delhi court granted interim bail to Gupta and Singh, stating bail is the rule and jail is the exception as per the law of the land established by various judgments of the Supreme Court. Refusal of bail at a stage when the investigation is substantially done would amount to inflicting punishment before the trial, it added.
In Dec, a Delhi court took cognisance of a chargesheet filed by CBI in a case related to the the deaths of the three aspirants. The court of additional chief judicial magistrate Nishant Garg issued summons to six accused named in the chargesheet to appear on Dec 20.
The chargesheet, filed by the agency in Sept under BNS sections 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) and 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), named six people -- Abhishek Gupta, Deshpal Singh, and basement co-owners Parvinder Singh, Sarabjit Singh, Harvinder Singh and Tajinder Singh.
The court said the co-owners let out the basement of the building to Gupta for commercial use despite knowing it could not be used for such purposes and that rainwater used to enter the basement, particularly during the rainy season. The court noted that they took an electricity connection with a load capacity of 11.0 KVA with the intention to use the basement for commercial purposes.
On Jan 21, Delhi High Court granted regular bail to the four co-owners and asked them to deposit Rs 5 lakh with Delhi State Legal Services Authority towards the welfare of the families of the deceased.
The deaths of the three students — Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni and Nivin Dalwin — had sparked anger and protests across the national capital. Following the incident, several coaching centres in the area were sealed for holding classes illegally in their basements. It also triggered a political row between Delhi govt and the authorities.