Techie death case: SIT questions Noida Authority officials; builder sent to judicial custody
NOIDA: A builder arrested in connection with the death of the 27-year-old software engineer in Greater Noida was on Wednesday sent to judicial custody for a week, as a Special Investigation Team (SIT) stepped up its probe into the incident, questioning officials of the Noida Authority that is facing allegations of negligence.
"Abhay Kumar, one of the accused builders and the director of MZ Wiztown Planners, was presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Surajpur. He has been sent to a week-long judicial custody," Greater Noida ACP Hemant Upadhyaya told PTI.
He said that efforts were on to arrest the other builder -- of real estate developer Lotus Greens -- named in the FIR.
Upadhyaya said forensic experts collected samples from the accident site on Wednesday as part of the investigation.
The three-member SIT, constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government, spent several hours at the Noida Authority headquarters in Sector 6, questioning senior officials as well as junior-level staff, particularly those linked to the traffic cell, officials said.
The SIT, led by Additional Director General of Police (Meerut Zone) Bhanu Bhaskar and comprising the Meerut divisional commissioner and the chief engineer of the Public Works Department, had arrived in Noida on Tuesday. It visited the accident site in Sector 150 and also spoke to the victim's father, Raj Kumar Mehta.
From Wednesday morning, teams from the forensic laboratory and other departments were seen at the Sector 150 site, carrying out measurements of the road and adjoining drain.
Officials closely inspected the area, including the deep pit-- now resembling a waterlogged pond -- from which deceased Yuvraj Mehta's car was retrieved on Tuesday evening, three days after the accident.
Yuvraj Mehta, who worked in Gurugram, was returning home on the night of January 16 when his car fell into the deep, water-filled pit near a construction site in Sector 150.
He died after allegedly pleading for help for nearly two hours, even as police, the NDRF and the SDRF tried to save him amid the dense fog, while his helpless father, Raj Kumar Mehta, witnessed the tragedy unfold.
According to sources, a letter written by developer MZ Wiztown Planners to the Noida Authority in March 2022 had flagged the collapse of the sewer and main drain lines at the site and warned that "any accident can happen" at the water-filled excavation.
Accessed by PTI on Wednesday, the letter, addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of the Noida Authority, mentioned the continuous flow of sewage and drain water into Plot SC/02, A-3 and sought repairs.
In the communication dated March 14, 2022, MZ Wiztown Planners said the collapsed sewer and drain lines had flooded the entire basement of the plot with sewage and drainage water, warning that "any accident can happen unknowingly" if immediate repairs were not carried out.
The developer also cautioned that even the barricading installed at the site was collapsing as the adjoining road was sinking due to soil erosion and water pressure, and urged the Authority to urgently restore the damaged lines and pump out accumulated water to prevent an accident.
Further, a 2023 letter from the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department to the Noida Authority, also accessed by PTI, had warned about persistent waterlogging in Sector 150 and recommended the construction of head regulators to flush excess rainwater and drain discharge into the Hindon river. The communication noted that budgetary provisions had been made, but the project was never implemented.
Officials acknowledged that water accumulated at the site not only due to rainfall but also because of continuous discharge from drains connected to nearby residential societies.
Amid mounting public outrage against developers and the local authority, the Uttar Pradesh government had on Monday removed the Noida Authority's Chief Executive Officer and ordered the SIT probe into the incident. Earlier, it had terminated the services of a junior engineer of the authority's traffic cell.
The police had on Tuesday arrested Abhay Kumar, director of MZ Wiztown Planners which owned the construction plot where water had accumulated since 2021.
Prior to that, it belonged to Lotus Greens, according to officials.
The FIR had been lodged under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (causing death by negligence) and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), along with other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, police said.