A builder arrested in connection with the death of a 27-year-old software engineer who fell into a water-filled pit in Greater Noida has been sent to judicial custody for a week, as a Special Investigation Team (SIT) intensified its probe and questioned officials of the Noida Authority over alleged lapses, according to PTI.
Abhay Kumar, a director of MZ Wiztown Planners, was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Surajpur on Wednesday and remanded to judicial custody for seven days. “Abhay Kumar, one of the accused builders who is the director of MZ Wiztown Planners, was presented before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Surajpur. He has been sent to a week-long judicial custody,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Hemant Upadhyaya told PTI.
Upadhyaya said police were making efforts to arrest the other builder named in the FIR, associated with real estate developer Lotus Greens. He added that forensic teams collected samples from the accident site on Wednesday as part of the investigation, PTI reported.
The three-member SIT, set up by the Uttar Pradesh government, spent several hours at the Noida Authority headquarters in Sector 6, questioning senior officials as well as junior staff, particularly those linked to the traffic cell, officials said. According to PTI, the SIT is headed by Additional Director General of Police (Meerut Zone) Bhanu Bhaskar and includes the Meerut divisional commissioner and the chief engineer of the Public Works Department.
The team arrived in Noida on Tuesday, visited the accident site in Sector 150, and met the victim’s father, Raj Kumar Mehta. From Wednesday morning, teams from the forensic laboratory and other departments were seen at the Sector 150 location, taking measurements of the road and the adjoining drain.
Officials closely examined the area, including the deep pit, now resembling a waterlogged pond, from which the car of the deceased, Yuvraj Mehta, was recovered on Tuesday evening, three days after the accident, PTI reported.
Yuvraj Mehta, who worked in Gurugram, was returning home on the night of January 16 when his car plunged into the deep, water-filled pit near a construction site in Sector 150. He died after allegedly pleading for help for nearly two hours, even as police, the NDRF and the SDRF attempted a rescue amid dense fog, while his father witnessed the events unfold.
Amid growing public anger directed at developers and the local authority, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday removed the Noida Authority’s Chief Executive Officer and ordered an SIT probe into the incident. Earlier, the services of a junior engineer from the authority’s traffic cell were terminated.
Police arrested Abhay Kumar on Tuesday. According to officials, MZ Wiztown Planners owns the construction plot where water had been accumulating since 2021, while the land previously belonged to Lotus Greens.
An FIR has been registered under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (causing death by negligence) and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), along with other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, police said, PTI reported.
(With inputs from PTI)
