Developer arrested; SIT begins probe, report due in five days
Noida: Police on Tuesday arrested the director of a real estate firm in connection with the death of a 27-year-old software engineer whose car plunged into a water-filled pit at an under-construction site in Sector 150, while a Special Investigation Team (SIT) began its probe amid public anger over alleged negligence and delays in the rescue effort, officials said.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Hemant Upadhyay said Abhay Kumar, identified as the director of MZ Wiztown Planners and named as one of the accused in the case, was arrested from Sector 150. Another police account described Kumar as the director of Best Town Planners Private Limited and a resident of the Commonwealth Games Village in Delhi. He has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106(1) (causing death by negligence) and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), officials said.
Police had registered a first information report (FIR) against two real estate developers, MZ Wiztown Planners and Lotus Greens, based on a complaint by the victim’s father, Raj Kumar Mehta, who sought accountability and also alleged negligence by local authorities. The FIR also named Lotus Green Builder. There was no official word on action against the other accused firm.
The victim, Yuvraj Mehta, died on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday (January 16-17), after his car allegedly skidded in dense fog, broke a drain boundary and fell into a deep, waterlogged pit dug for the basement of an under-construction commercial complex. Police said the pit had filled with water due to alleged negligence at the worksite.
The incident sparked widespread outrage after reports and residents’ accounts suggested the site lacked proper barricading, warning signs and adequate lighting. Local residents staged protests, accusing authorities and developers of ignoring repeated warnings about the dangerous stretch.
Eyewitnesses told investigators and reporters that Mehta remained trapped and pleaded for help for nearly two hours, but despite police and rescue teams reaching the site, he could not be saved. “If expert divers could have gone in, then maybe my son would have been saved. Yuvraj kept crying for help as the car drowned,” Raj Kumar Mehta said.
His body was recovered on Saturday after an extended operation involving the fire department, police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), officials said. The NDRF deployed boats and divers to locate the vehicle in the water. The car was finally pulled out on Tuesday evening, three days after the incident. Police said it was found stuck between two basement levels, nearly 20 feet deep.
The three-member SIT, constituted on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s orders on Monday evening, is headed by Additional Director General (Meerut Zone) Bhanu Bhaskar and includes Meerut Divisional Commissioner Bhanu Chandra Goswami and Public Works Department Chief Engineer Ajay Verma. District Magistrate Medha Roopam accompanied the team during its visit to the site on Tuesday.
“We have been given five days to examine all aspects and provide an answer within that time frame, determining whose fault it was or what more we could have done to prevent this accident,” Bhaskar told reporters. “We need to examine the civic authority, police and emergency authority,” he added, noting the team would also speak to the victim’s father.
The government has removed IAS officer Lokesh M as Noida Authority CEO, placing him on the “waitlist”, and suspended junior engineer Naveen Kumar. A senior police officer said construction at the plot, described as a shopping mall site, had been stalled for more than three years.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also weighed in, saying in a post on X that India’s urban collapse is rooted in a “lack of accountability,” adding: “Roads kill, bridges kill, fires kill, water kills, pollution kills, corruption kills, indifference kills.”
Investigations are continuing, police said.
