Delhi UPSC aspirants’ death: Court sends six accused in coaching centre tragedy to 4-day CBI custody

Delhi UPSC aspirants' death: A Delhi court on Saturday sent six people arrested in a case related to the drowning of three civil services aspirants in a coaching centre's basement in Old Rajinder Nagar to four days' CBI custody. Three students namely Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni and Nevin Dalvin died in the incident.

Citing the postmortem report, the CBI has said that the three UPSC aspirants had died during the flooding on July 27 due to asphyxia caused by antemortem drowning.

The agency said its investigation revealed that on July 27 at about 6.30 pm, several students were studying in the library located in the basement of the Rau's IAS circle coaching institute and heavy rainfall was taking place.

On Saturday, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Nishant Garg sent Abhishek Gupta, Deshpal Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Sarabjit Singh, and Parvinder Singh to the custody till September 4.

"Considering the submissions in the application and in particular the scope of investigation in terms of the order dated August 2, 2024 of the High Court of Delhi, custodial interrogation of the accused persons would be necessary for the purpose of investigation and for ascertaining the role played by various individuals who might have been involved in corrupt practices or criminal negligence," the judge said.

The judge passed the order on an application filed by the CBI seeking police custody of all six accused for four days for their interrogation.

The order was passed after the accused were produced before the court on expiry of their judicial custody granted earlier in the case.

The CBI has filed the case for various alleged offences, including criminal negligence, dereliction of duties and corrupt practices indulged in by any person, including officials of the local authorities.

Earlier, CBI had said that its investigation showed that Rau's IAS was being run in the building which has "Basement, Stilt/Parking, Upper Ground Floor, First Floor, Second Floor and Third Floor".

"All the floors including basement were used by the said coaching institute. The basement was used for the purpose of library where students used to sit throughout the day for study as well as for taking test conducted by coaching institute," it said.

The case, being probed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), was transferred from the Delhi Police to the CBI by the Delhi High Court on August 2.