Court grants bail to two held in Noida techie drowning case

The court noted the offence was bailable after reviewing the case diary. FIRs were filed against MZ Wiztown and Lotus Green Builders.

A city court on Friday granted bail to two employees of a real estate company who were arrested in connection with the death of a 27-year-old software engineer, Yuvraj Mehta, who drowned after his car plunged into an unsecured, water-filled excavation pit in Sector 150 earlier this month.

The drowning of 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta sparked nationwide outrage. An SIT has been formed, and proceedings against a co-accused resume Feb 2. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

The bail was granted by the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) to Ravi Bansal and Sachin Karanwal – both employees of Lotus Green Builders – in connection with the case registered following Mehta’s death. The court ordered their release on personal bonds of ₹25,000 each along with one surety of the same amount.

The court also imposed strict conditions, including a ban on foreign travel without prior judicial permission and directives to cooperate with the investigation and not tamper with evidence.

During the hearing, the counsel for the accused alleged that they had been “falsely implicated” and had not committed any offence. The prosecution noted the offense was bailable, and the court found sufficient grounds for bail after reviewing the case diary.

“The alleged offence is bailable in nature and, considering the facts and circumstances of the case, sufficient grounds for granting bail are made out,” the court stated.

The court directed the accused to cooperate with the probe, not tamper evidence, and not leave the country without the court’s prior permission. It further ordered that any proposed foreign travel would require explicit judicial approval.

The accused were arrested on January 22 by the police on a complaint filed by the victim’s father, Raj Kumar Mehta. A first information report (FIR) was registered against two firms – MZ Wiztown and Lotus Green Builders – leading to the arrest of Wiztown director Abhay Kumar and the two Lotus Green employees.

Proceedings against Abhay Kumar will resume on February 2.

During previous hearings, counsel for the Lotus Green employees questioned the arrest of junior-level staff while senior officials and decision-makers of the developer companies had not been proceeded against, arguing that individual roles needed separate assessment. Counsel for MZ Wiztown, meanwhile, contended that the drainage infrastructure at the site fell under the responsibility of the Noida Authority and not the company, and also challenged the legality of the arrest on procedural grounds.

Police have registered multiple FIRs, including under sections related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence in the case that had sparked nationwide outrage. The Uttar Pradesh government has also set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case.