The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its response on the bail plea of four co-owners of a basement in connection with the death of three IAS aspirants in Old Rajinder Nagar. The court will hear the matter next on September 11. The four co-owners have argued that they were only the landlords of the basement, which was rented out to the coaching centre,
Therefore, they have no role in this unfortunate incident. The sessions court had earlier rejected the bail pleas of the basement co-owners – Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh and Sarabjit Singh – saying that the CBI investigation was at a preliminary stage and their specific roles were yet to be ascertained. The case was being investigated under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), which was transferred by the high court from the Delhi Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In an application filed in the high court, one of the co-owners said that the trial court, while denying them bail, did not consider that the co-owners had leased out the basement and third floor of the building for running a coaching centre, which is an activity permissible under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) norms, and that they never had any intention to commit such an offence nor did they have any knowledge of the same.