New Delhi, Mar 13 A Delhi court has directed the CBI to conduct a further probe into the MCD for probable dereliction of duties or corrupt practices that led to the drowning of three civil services aspirants in an illegal basement coaching centre in the city's Old Rajinder Nagar area in 2024.
Principal District and Sessions Judge Dinesh Bhatt of the Rouse Avenue Courts allowed the protest petition seeking further investigation by the father of a deceased aspirant.
Abhijit Anand, counsel for Dalvin Suresh, the father of deceased Nevin Dalvin, had filed a petition alleging that the central agency's investigating officer (IO) did not conduct a "free and fair investigation."
In a 20-page verdict on Thursday, the court directed the IO "to carry out further investigation in the matter regarding the issue of probable dereliction of duties/corrupt practices by the officials of the MCD which have led to the institute having continued in its illegal use of the basement, thereby being instrumental in loss of lives of innocent citizens and to file report as per law."
It said the agency failed to probe the dereliction of duties by the civic body officers who allowed the occupiers of the building (Rau's IAS Study Circle) "to continue their illegal and unauthorised activities in the basement, leading to the death of three innocent students."
The court recalled the Delhi High Court's August 2024 order transferring the case to the CBI, specifically directing it to carry out a full-fledged investigation into the incident.
"It has also been observed that three young lives were snuffed off apparently due to greed and/or negligence and/or failure to discharge duty," it said, citing the order.
The court also expressed scepticism over the CBI's decision to only charge a junior engineer of the Karol Bagh Zone, without naming any superior official.
"Given the background of the case where a huge structure consisting of more than six floors catering to hundreds of students was operational for a number of years, (it) could not have gone unnoticed by the civic authorities who have a duty to report any non-compliance or violation of laws on a day-to-day basis," it said.
It also expressed disbelief that none of the JE's supervisory officers could have been aware of the illegal and unauthorised use of the basement.
There could be a conscious effort to ignore or permit the illegal use of the basement of the said coaching institute, the court said.
"The investigation in the case has revealed that the JE of the zone had merely put up a photograph dated August 3, 2024, along with a note that the institute was not complying with the provisions of Master Plan for Delhi (MPD) 2021, and the said note was taken up by respective officers in the hierarchy and finally a show cause notice was issued to the occupants.
"But there were no details of inspection or violation found at the site mentioned either in the aforesaid note or the show cause notice," the court said.
In a stinging criticism of the process, the court said that the civic body officials did not conduct any inspection or they specifically omitted details of violations by providing a general view "to circumvent or show a sham compliance" with the high court's order.
It said none of the higher officials bothered to find out if there was any violation, and did not even ask their subordinate officers as to why they had not specified the shortcomings which were found by them at the site.
The court underlined that the low-lying area was prone to waterlogging and flooding, and there had been several incidents of flooding in the basement before the incident.
"It is thus difficult to believe that the entire hierarchy of the officials of the MCD would have no knowledge of the same," it said.
Judge Bhatt noted that after issuing a show cause notice to the coaching institute, the MCD officials only asked for the production of the fire NOC and no further compliance was either noted or asked.
"Even after they had received a complaint specifically pointing out that the coaching centre was being illegally run in the basement and the area was prone to waterlogging … no action was initiated," the judge said.
About this complaint, the judge noted that the IO pointed out that it was received late because of "some technical failure."
The court chastised the IO to say, "The record perused in this regard shows that the complaint dated June 26, 2024, and reminder were received in the office of the deputy commissioner (DC), MCD on July 18, but even then no action was taken till July 27 when the incident (of drowning deaths) had happened."
The judge said, "Merely to say that the lowest official in the hierarchy did not perform his duty will not suffice in the matter, as it was the duty of the supervising officers to see that the necessary compliance was being carried out on the ground."
