Noida techie death: Builder Abhay Kumar arrested for criminal negligence

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed the constitution of a three-member SIT to investigate the circumstances leading to Mehta's death

Greater Noida Police on Tuesday arrested builder Abhay Kumar in connection with the death of software engineer Yuvraj Mehta. Kumar was named in the case and was reportedly taken into custody by the Knowledge Park police station team.

Abhay Kumar, owner of MZ Wishtown, a real estate project located in the Knowledge Park area, had been named in the FIR registered in connection with the engineer’s death.

Mehta, who worked in Gurugram was heading back to his house in Greater Noida’s Sector 150 area when his car fell into a deep, water-filled pit near an under-construction site on the night of January 16-17. He died after frantically pleading for help for around two hours.

On the basis of a complaint by his father, a first information was filed against Wishtown Planners and Lotus Greens post the death of Mehta. However, Lotus Greens had later said that they sold the project to Wishtown Planners and the Grihapravesh Group in 2019-20 with the approval of the Noida Authority.

On Monday, the Uttar Pradesh government removed Noida Authority CEO Lokesh M, a 2005-batch IAS officer, and ordered the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the death.

Taking cognisance of the incident, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed the constitution of a three-member SIT to investigate the circumstances leading to Mehta's death.

Besides the SIT probe, Adityanath directed officials to identify accident-prone locations across Uttar Pradesh and ensure that remedial measures are taken immediately. He instructed that all necessary measures be taken to prevent a recurrence of such incidents anywhere in the state.

Mehta's father, Raj Kumar, has alleged negligence by local authorities and demanded that accountability be fixed in the matter so that "no one else loses their son like this" in future.

"My son struggled for 2 hours to save his life. The officials and staff present were unable to save him. They did not have any divers. There is negligence on the part of the administration in this entire matter," he told ANI.