Cleaning work takes place outside Rau’s IAS Study Circl after three civil services aspirants died as the basement that houses the training centre was flooded with rainwater in old Rajinder Nagar in New Delhi on August 1, 2024. | Photo: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

New Delhi: A Rouse Avenue court on Wednesday sent all six accused of drowning three UPSC aspirants at Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar coaching centre to judicial custody till September 18, 2024.

The case is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The accused were produced before the court by the CBI after the expiration of their remand period, which was granted during the previous hearing.

In the previous hearing, the court had observed that the questioning of the accused in custody was crucial for the ongoing investigation. Consequently, the court remanded Abhishek Gupta, Deshpal Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Sarabjit Singh and Parvinder Singh in police custody for four days.

The court said the purpose of custodial interrogation is to aid in the investigation and is one of the effective ways of investigating an alleged crime. The Supreme Court ruled that in the case of serious crimes, the investigating officer should be given a free hand to continue and complete the investigation.

Senior Public Prosecutor Prashant Kumar, appearing for the CBI, submitted that the questioning of the accused in custody was necessary for conducting the investigation and noted that the CBI was yet to remand the accused in police custody.

Recently, the court dismissed a petition filed by Abhishek Gupta, CEO of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, seeking resumption of classes at the coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar. The petition was filed after the tragic drowning of three IAS aspirants due to basement flooding on July 27. The CBI had opposed the petition, arguing that the basement where the incident took place was being misused as a library and not as a storage room as intended.