The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has accused the owner of Rau’s IAS Study Circle of “knowingly” using the basement for commercial purposes, violating the usage approved by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
Three UPSC aspirants died due to drowning in the basement library of the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar on July 27.
Citing the “seriousness” of the charges, the CBI which took over the probe on August 2 from Delhi Police has requested permission from the special court to conduct “custodial interrogation” of Rau’s IAS Study Circle owner Abhishek Gupta and the other accused inclduing Deshpal Singh, Harvinder Singh, Parvinder Singh, Sarabjeet Singh and Tajinder Singh, who are currently in judicial custody.
On Saturday, additional chief judicial magistrate Nishant Garg ordered all six accused to be placed in CBI custody till September 4. The investigation agency in its submission to the court has revealed that the coaching institute had operated without a fire safety certificate for nearly a year despite concerns raised by the Delhi High Court in 2023.
Last year, when the high court highlighted that many local coaching institutes lacked mandatory fire safety certificates, the MCD issued a show cause notice to the owner of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, instructing compliance with Masterplan-2021.
The owner responded on August 8, 2023 by assuring the MCD that he had applied for the certificate, which was eventually issued to the institute on July 9, 2024.
The investigation has also revealed that the MCD had provided an occupancy certificate for the building on August 9, 2021, specifying that the basement was only to be used for parking, storage, and other non-commercial purposes.
Despite this, the coaching institute’s owner, Abhishek Gupta, signed a lease agreement on January 5, 2022 for nine years, paying ₹4 lakh in monthly rent and converted the basement into a library and exam hall, violating the approved usage.
“In contravention of the approved usage of the basement, the lessor and the lessee knowingly agreed to use the basement for the commercial purpose of running the coaching institute,” the CBI has told a special court.
The CBI has also pointed out that the Old Rajinder Nagar area, where the institute is located frequently experienced flooding even during moderate rain, leading to water entering the premises.
Steel gates were installed to block the water, but during the heavy rainfall on July 27, water suddenly flooded the basement where several students were studying.
The CBI investigation found that the three UPSC aspirants who drowned—Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni, and Nevin Dalvin—died due to asphyxia caused by drowning, as confirmed by the postmortem report.
The coaching institute had been using all floors, including the basement for its operations in violation of the building’s intended purpose.