Foggy Night Tragedy: Noida Techie's Death Exposes Safety Lapses, Police Cover-Up Allegations

Image Source: Internet

A 27-year-old software engineer, Yuvraj Mehta, lost his life in a freak accident in Noida's Sector 150 on a foggy Saturday morning. His car skidded off the road, broke the drain boundary, and plunged into a deep, waterlogged pit dug for an under-construction commercial complex. The incident has sparked a controversy, with allegations of police attempting to cover up the incident and safety lapses being exposed. According to eyewitness Moninder Singh, police officers pressured him to stay away from the media for 10 days after he initially alleged inaction by rescue teams. Singh claimed that police officers recorded another video of him after giving him a script, and he was forced to sit in a park for over four-and-a-half hours. Satellite images on Google Earth reveal that a large water body began appearing at the Sector 150 plot in late 2021, with the excavation remaining unsecured for over three years despite surrounding road and infrastructure development. A review of Google Earth images shows that the land was under agriculture until at least 2015, with no large water body appearing until November 2021. A UP Irrigation Department letter to the Noida Authority flagged the need to construct head regulators to flush out accumulated rain and drain water in Sector 150, but the project was never taken up. Locals who carried out protest marches said the mishap could have been avoided if the proposed head regulators had been constructed. The state government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident, and police have arrested Abhay Kumar, the promoter of MZ Wiztown Planner Pvt Ltd, from the Sector 150 area. The incident has raised questions about safety lapses and police accountability in Noida.