UP Forms SIT to Investigate Noida Techie’s Death, Probe Report Due in 5 Days

The Uttar Pradesh government has placed Lokesh M under suspension as Chief Executive Officer of the Noida Authority a day after a 27 year old software engineer was killed after his SUV fell into a deep, water-filled pit in Sector 150, Greater Noida late one night.

The death was ordered to be investigated by Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath to establish a special investigation team (SIT). According to NDTV, the SIT has been requested to present its report within a period of five days.

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This is decided on a day following the action of the Noida Authority against officials who dealt with traffic related activities in the region. A junior engineer and in-charge of the Noida traffic cell, Naveen Kumar has been suspended notices given to other officials involved in the site.

The accident took place on Saturday, as 27-year old resident of Tata Eureka Park society in Noida, Yuvraj Mehta who was a software engineer, was going home. Because of bad visibility, his vehicle missed one of its turns and landed in the flooded pit at the construction site.

The hole, a depth of over 20 feet, which was nearly submerged in water, could hardly be seen up the road. Police said there were no barricades, fencing, reflectors or warning lights in the area, and thus it was very unsafe especially in winter when it was foggy.

“My son was struggling to save himself. He kept repeating ‘papa bachao, papa bachao’ every time we spoke on the phone,” the father, Raj Kumar Mehta, told news agency ANI. “He was also shouting ‘help, help’ so that the general public might hear his cry for help, but most of the crowd was just watching. Some people were making videos.”

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Raj Kumar Mehta described his son waving his mobile phone torch to mark his position in the deep dark foggy pit. Nevertheless, he claimed that there was no meaningful rescue effort made at the critical time when Yuvraj was alive and he approximated that it took about two hours between the time of the accident at about midnight till his son switched on the phone at around 2.30 am.

“My son struggled for 2 hours to save his life. Had he been given little support, he might have survived,” he said, directly contradicting official accounts of an immediate and concerted rescue operation.

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