Noida techie death: From car's fatal fall into waterlogged trench to SIT probe and realtor's arrest | Top 10 updates

Noida techie Yuvraj Mehta's death case, which has shocked Delhi-NCR, points to lapses in rescue efforts, a lack of road safety arrangements, and negligence at an under-construction site. An investigation is underway into the allegations of negligence against the construction companies involved. Several shocking revelations have surfaced in the case since his death on 18 January.

• The 27-year-old software engineer who worked in the Gurugram office fell into a waterlogged trench on Friday night while returning home to Tata Eureka Park in Noida's Sector 150. He lived with his father after his mother died two years ago. Amid low visibility due to fog, his car broke through the ditch's boundary and fell into it.

• On realising he was trapped, the techie climbed onto the car's roof and made a desperate call to his father. “My son himself called me while he was trapped. He said, ‘Papa, I am stuck, the car has fallen into the drain, ’” Hindustan Times quoted Mehta's father Raj Kumar as saying.
• In the wee hours of Saturday, he finally drowned to death despite the arrival of rescue teams on site in time. Following hours of waiting, no swimmer arrived with the rescue personnel. Yuvraj Mehta died due to asphyxiation as a result of ante-mortem drowning, followed by cardiac arrest, his autopsy report revealed.

• According to the police, Mehta's Grand Vitara plunged into the flooded ditch after he lost control of the vehicle while taking a turn at the intersection of Sector 150 and hit its boundary wall.
• The eyewitness's statement suggested that Mehta had been pleading for help for more than 1.5 hours. Disappointed with the relief efforts, a delivery agent named Moninder, who arrived at the spot at around 1:45 AM on Saturday, decided to rescue the man himself. “For around one hour and forty-five minutes, he kept pleading for help, saying, ‘please save me, save me in any way possible,’” HT quoted the eyewitness as saying.
• Asserting that the techie could have been saved if help had arrived just ten minutes earlier, Moninder said, “I tied a rope around my waist and went into the water myself. I searched for the youth and his car for around 30 minutes.”

• A police officer involved in the rescue operation said that ropes thrown into the six to seven-foot-wide ditch fell short. He alleged that ladders and cranes could not bridge the distance between the road and the pit, and fog delayed the rescue teams' arrival. Yuvraj waited for nearly 90 minutes for help until the vehicle was ultimately swallowed by the deadly waters.
• An FIR filed by Yuvraj's father alleged that residents of Sector 150 had asked the Noida authority to install barricading and reflectors near the drain, but no action was taken. A case of culpable homicide was registered against two building firms, Lotus Greens Construction Pvt Ltd and MZ Wiztown Planners Pvt Ltd, under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106 (causing death by negligence) and 125 (act endangering life) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
• On Tuesday, the Knowledge Park Police apprehended Abhay Kumar, the builder and owner of real estate firm MZ Wiztown Planners Ltd, from Noida's Sector-150, in connection with the case.
• On the same day, a team from the National Disaster Response Force visited the spot to fish out the car. A three-member special investigation team (SIT) was formed on 20 January to investigate the circumstances that led to Yuvraj's death.

The delivery agent Moninder alleged that the police officials forced him to give statements in favour of the police and threatened him for speaking to the media. Monider said, “They also verbally gave me a script and recorded a video. As I was scared, I said ‘okay’ and agreed to follow the directions, but I decided that I am the only eyewitness in the case and I will stand with the truth,” Hindustan Times reported.