Noida software engineer’s death: Real estate firm director arrested

Police arrested a real estate firm director in connection with the death of a 27-year-old software engineer whose car plunged into a water-filled pit at a construction site in Noida’s Sector 150. An SIT is probing alleged negligence by developers and officials

Noida: Police on Tuesday arrested the director of a real estate group in connection with the death of a 27-year-old software engineer, whose car had plunged into a water-filled pit at a construction site in Noida‘s Sector 150, officials said.

“Abhay Kumar, director of MZ Wiztown Planners and one of the accused in the case, has been arrested from Sector 150,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Hemant Upadhyay said.

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Yuvraj Mehta was killed in the early hours of Saturday after his car 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 near a drain.

The police had filed an FIR against two real estate developers — MZ Wiztown Planners and Lotus Greens — on a complaint by the victim’s father, Raj Kumar Mehta, who alleged negligence by local authorities and sought accountability.

While Kumar of Wiztown Planners has been arrested, there was no official update as of Tuesday afternoon from the police on action against the other accused firm.

The arrest came on a day a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Additional Director General (ADG), Meerut Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar visited the accident site to examine the circumstances leading to the incident.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Monday evening ordered the constitution of the three-member SIT to probe the case, amid public outrage and allegations of negligence by officials and developers.

The state government also removed senior IAS officer Lokesh M as the Noida Authority CEO on Monday, putting him on “waitlist”.

The FIR has 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) and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the police said.

Investigations are continuing, the police added.

The incident has sparked allegations of negligence, inadequate safety arrangements and delays in rescue efforts, with the victim’s father saying he had reached the spot along with police and other rescue personnel were also there but could not save him.

“If expert divers could have gone in, then maybe my son would have been saved. Yuvraj kept crying for help as the car drowned,” he told reporters.