After screaming for help for around two hours while standing atop his partially submerged car, with policemen allegedly watching, a 27-year-old man drowned in a nearly 70-foot-deep drain in Noida’s Sector 150 early Saturday.
Yuvraj Mehta, a Noida-based techie employed by a Gurgaon-based private company, was returning home when his car plunged into the drain, which allegedly had a damaged boundary wall, around 12.30 am. “The visibility was extremely low due to fog, and the boundary wall near the drain was already broken,” Yuvraj’s father Raj Mehta has alleged in a police complaint.
Yuvraj, who had lost his mother two years ago, lived with his father at Tata Eureka Park in Noida’s Sector 150. He was the sole earning member of the family.
Yuvraj’s friend Pankaj Tokas alleged that after falling in the drain, the victim managed to get out of the car and climbed onto its roof, from where he called his father. “He was six-foot tall, a fit guy but did not know how to swim,” he added.
Cops and his father watching, Noida techie drowns two hours after car falls in drain
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Pankaj said Raj initially reached the wrong location. “He was constantly on call with Yuvraj. He reached the correct spot in a matter of minutes and alerted the police.”
“The police personnel who arrived at the spot kept saying they did not know how to swim. Cranes and ropes were also called, but no one entered the water to save my friend… And then he stopped pleading for help around 2.30 am,” he added.
Pankaj was informed of Yuvraj’s death by Raj around 3 am.
According to Pankaj, Moninder, a passerby, entered the drain around 1.45 am but did not find Yuvraj in a 30-minute search.
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Speaking to The Indian Express, Moninder said, “The administration is responsible for the death. He kept pleading for help. But these officials kept saying that the water was cold and maybe there were iron rods in the water and none of them jumped to save him.”
Police said they received information about the incident through the Police Response Vehicle (PRV) around 1 am. “The local police immediately reached the spot and informed the Fire department, along with SDRF and NDRF teams,” an officer said.
The Station House Officer of Knowledge Park police station, Sarvesh Singh, said, “The police made all efforts to save him but the visibility was so low that the man could not be seen… The SDRF and NDRF teams reached two hours late.”
Pankaj also alleged, “The NDRF and SDRF teams arrived around 2.30 am but could only enter the water by 3.20 am. By then, no one could hear Yuvraj.”
The body was eventually pulled out around 6.30 am by police. “We have still not been able to find the car. We will be looking for it tomorrow,” Sarvesh Singh said. He added that no FIR has been registered but a memorandum will be sent to the Noida Authority regarding the incident.
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Raj, in his complaint to the police, has alleged that local residents had requested the Noida Authority to barricade the area near the drain and also put reflectors around it. “But nothing was done,” he alleged.
Noida Authority General Manager A K Arora did not respond to repeated calls and messages.
