UP govt removes Noida CEO, forms SIT to probe techie’s death in Sector 150

The move came amid mounting public outrage over what many have described as a chain of civic negligence

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday removed Noida Authority chief executive officer (CEO) Lokesh M from his post and constituted a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the circumstances that led to the death of a 27-year-old software engineer who drowned in a water-filled excavation pit in Sector 150 two days earlier, officials said.

According to investigators and eyewitness accounts, Mehta managed to climb onto the roof of his partially submerged car and called his father for help. Police, firefighters, and teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the site, but rescue efforts failed to save him. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The move came amid mounting public outrage over what many have described as a chain of civic negligence and an agonisingly delayed rescue operation that unfolded in full public view.

According to a statement issued by the chief minister’s office, the SIT will be headed by additional director general (Meerut zone) Bhanu Bhaskar, with Meerut divisional commissioner Bhanu Chandra Goswami and Public Works Department (Meerut) chief engineer Ajay Verma as members. The panel has been asked to submit its report to chief minister Yogi Adityanath within five days.

“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath took cognisance of the death of a software engineer after his car fell into a water-filled pit at a construction site in Noida,” a state government spokesperson said.

The victim, Yuvraj Mehta, 27, died in the early hours of Saturday after his car plunged into a deep, waterlogged excavation pit on a vacant plot in Sector 150. Mehta, a software engineer, was returning home from his office in Gurugram when he reportedly lost control of his vehicle in dense fog, broke through a low boundary at a sharp 90-degree turn, and fell into the pit.

According to investigators and eyewitness accounts, Mehta managed to climb onto the roof of his partially submerged car and called his father for help. Police, firefighters, and teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the site, but rescue efforts failed to save him. For nearly 90 minutes, Mehta remained trapped, calling for help as his vehicle slowly sank. By the time he could be pulled out, he had died.

An FIR has since been registered against two real estate developers for alleged negligence, including the absence of barricades, reflectors and mandatory safety measures at the site.

‘I lost my son in front of my eyes’

The victim’s father, Raj Kumar Mehta, has alleged gross negligence on the part of authorities and emergency responders. “My son lost his life because of the lack of infrastructure and facilities,” he told HT. “My loss is irreparable, but he deserves justice… He only needed to be handed a rope to be saved. They couldn’t even provide that… I lost my son right in front of my eyes.”

Responding to claims by police and rescue agencies that the car had fallen too far from the main road, Mehta said the explanation was unacceptable. “They should have come with well-equipped rescue kits.”

He alleged that SDRF arrived only after 3am and took nearly two hours to enter the water. “My son was my only support. Now I will have to live alone for the rest of my life,” he said.

Recalling the final moments, Mehta said his son had called him while trapped. “‘Papa, I am stuck; the car has fallen into the drain,’ he told me. I rushed out immediately. I reached the spot after 40 minutes and pleaded for help, but by then my child was gone. This is a clear case of negligence.”

The post-mortem examination revealed that Mehta died of “asphyxia due to ante-mortem drowning followed by cardiac arrest”. The report noted that his nose was blocked with mud and water, the trachea and hyoid bone were filled with water, and one to two litres of water had accumulated in the chest cavity, with around 200 ml in the abdominal cavity.

On Monday, police appointed an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) as the investigating officer to probe the case, with another ACP assigned to supervise the investigation. Additional commissioner of police (Gautam Budh Nagar) Rajeev Narayan Mishra said the probe would examine every aspect of the incident. “All allegations of lapses, repeated complaints about the dangerous 90-degree turn, water accumulation, and the role of builders, authorities and rescue agencies will be incorporated into the investigation report,” Mishra said.

The submerged vehicle is yet to be retrieved and will be pulled out using cranes after water is pumped out of the pit, a process officials said could take time.

Assistant commissioner of police Hemant Upadhyay said police reached the spot within minutes and alerted SDRF within 15 to 20 minutes. “Due to zero visibility and dense fog, they took time to reach from Ghaziabad,” he said.

Explaining why no rescuer entered the water, Upadhyay said the depth of the pit and poor visibility made the operation extremely risky. “We feared that more lives could be lost if someone entered the water. It could have been worse,” he said.

Investigators have also revealed that a truck accident about 15 days earlier had damaged the boundary wall at the turn. Despite the breach, neither the police nor the Noida Authority had installed barricades or warning signs at the location. On Tuesday, authorities installed seven concrete barriers and additional temporary barricades at the site – measures that may have come too late, at least for Yuvraj’s family.