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The Delhi High court has recently granted regular bail to 4 co-owners of basement where where three UPSC aspirants drowned last year in RAU's IAS Study circle in Old Rajender Nagar .
Earlier they were granted interim bail which was extended on November 29. Justice Sanjeev Narula granted regular bail to Sarabjit Singh, Parvinder Singh, Tejinder Singh and Harvinder Singh. "Accordingly, the order dated 13th September, 2024, granting interim bail is now confirmed as regular bail on the same terms and conditions," Justice Sanjeev Narula ordered. "Furthermore, it is well established through catena of judgments by the Supreme Court that the object of granting bail is neither punitive nor preventative. The primary aim sought to be achieved by bail is to secure the attendance of the accused person at the trial," Justice Narula said in the order passed on January 21. The High Court noted in the order that the investigation regarding the aspect of corruption, is stated to be pending on the end of the CBI. However, there is no material placed on record either in the status report or otherwise, to indicate any corruption angle in the present petition against the applicants. While granting regular bail the High Court noted that the investigation has been concluded and the chargesheet stands filed. "While the nature of offence alleged are grave in nature, involving section 105 of the BNS, however, the role attributed to the Applicants must also be taken note of. The allegation against the Applicants is that they let out the basement for commercial purposes which was not permissible," the bench noted. The court emphasised, "However, whether the same amounts to an offence under section 105 and 106 of the BNS is for the trial court to decide based on evidence." The High court said that at this stage, this Court can only form a prima facie opinion based on the material placed before it. It must be.noted that the prosecution has primarily relied on clause (d) of the lease deed dated January 5, 2024. "However, prima facie, this court is unable to find how such a standard clause can attribute 'knowledge', under section 105 of the BNS, onto the Applicants, the High Court remarked. Senior advocate Mohit Mathur appeared for the accused persons and stated that, as directed by the Supreme Court, the Applicants wish to make a voluntarily donation of Rs 5 lakh (in aggregate) in the corpus. The High court directed that the applicants shall, within a period of two weeks from today, deposit Rs 5 lakh (in aggregate) with Delhi State Legal Services Authority, towards the welfare of the families of the deceased. The member secretary, DSLSA, shall then consider the claims from the families of deceased and issue direction for disbursal of the said amount after due consideration. However, the High court clarified that the above noted amount is a voluntary contribution from the Applicants and the Trial Court is at liberty to award compensation, if any, in addition to the noted amount, upon conclusion of trial. The Supreme Court had stayed the condition of depositing Rs 2.5 crores with the Red Cross. The High court had imposed this condition while granting interim bail to the 4 accused persons on September 13, 2024. The High court had also stayed the condition of depositing Rs 5 crores with Red cross society while granting the bail to Abhishek Gupta, the CEO of RAU's IAS Study circle. The Rouse Avenue court on September 23, 2024 granted interim bail to RAU's IAS Study Circle CEO Abhisek Gupta and coordinator Deshpal Singh in UPSC aspirants death case. The four co-owners had moved to the High Court through advocates Daksh Gupta, Gaurav Dua, Kaushal Jeet Kait and others. Senior advocate Amit Chaddha also appeared for accused persons. (ANI)
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