Noida techie's death: FIR on builder firms after man drowns in construction pit

Noida techie death: A 27-year-old techie died after his car plunged into the water-logged pit of an under-construction building in Noida.

An FIR has been registered against two building firms as a 27-year-old software engineer reportedly drowned after his car broke through the boundary wall of a roadside drain and fell into a water-filled basement at an under-construction building in Greater Noida’s Sector 150 in the early hours of Saturday.

A 27-year-old man died after his car broke through the boundary of a drain and plunged into water accumulated in the basement of a mall at Sector-150. (Hindustan Photos )

The two builders, who own the project, have been booked for causing death by negligence, police said.

“On the complaint of the deceased’s father, a case at Knowledge Park police station under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106 (causing death by negligence) and 125 (act endangering life) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered against the two builders who own the plot,” Hemant Upadhyay, ACP, Greater Noida told HT.

The deceased has been identified as Yuvraj Mehta who worked as a software engineer in Gurugram. According to the police, Mehta was driving a Grand Vitara when he lost control while taking a turn. The vehicle hit the boundary wall of the drain and fell into the flooded basement, they said.

The police, around midnight, roped in teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the state disaster response force, and the fire department. After several hours of searching, the teams recovered the body of the deceased, HT reported earlier.

The victim’s friends alleged the teams were unable to respond in a timely manner. “The rescue teams arrived only by 2.30am and could not even enter the water till 3.20am,” Pankaj, a friend of the deceased told HT.

Police said preliminary investigation pointed to low visibility and speeding as possible causes of the accident. “They had dug a large drain, around six to seven feet wide. Due to poor visibility and high speed, the driver appears to have lost control,” Upadhyay said.

Kin allege delay in police response

Eyewitnesses described Mehta's chilling plea for help before falling silent. Family members have also raised serious questions about the pace and conduct of the rescue operation, which lasted for hours.

Police have since said sending someone untrained into the water could have caused more deaths. Moninder, an eyewitness who reportedly works as a delivery agent and who entered the drain in an attempt to help the techie, described what he called “negligence on the authorities’ behalf".

Moninder said the accident occurred in heavy fog around midnight and that he reached the spot at about 1.45 am. He added that Mehta remained trapped in the car. “For around one hour and forty-five minutes, he kept pleading for help, saying, ‘please save me, save me in any way possible',” Moninder told reporters.

With inputs from Arun Singh and Asmita Seth