Noida lift horror: 5 arrested for negligence in tragic crash

Five people, including employees of a co-working space provider, were arrested on Saturday for alleged negligence that led to a lift crash, resulting in injuries to nine staffers of an IT firm, police said. The lift crash occurred on Friday evening when nine employees of Erasmith Technologies were in the elevator at the River Side Tower, an office leasing-out complex, in Sector 125 of Noida, as per state report. The elevator had a sudden free fall from the eighth floor to the basement of the building, they said.

Noida lift plunge case

The local police station lodged an FIR in the case, resulting in the arrest of five individuals. Additional DCP (Noida) Manish Kumar Mishra informed that an ongoing investigation might lead to further arrests if negligence in the lift crash is uncovered. He mentioned that among the nine injured, two were swiftly discharged, while the others remained stable and out of danger.

The arrested individuals, identified as Mohit Pant, Abhineet Mathur, Ramesh Chandra, Neetu Chandra Bisht, and Shraddha Thapa, were all employees of the co-working space provider Awfis, according to the police. As per the FIR, an employee of Erasmith Technologies claimed that Awfis had been previously informed about lift malfunctions, but the issue persisted despite the warnings.

“The owner and employees of Awfis company were repeatedly told that the lift was faulty and any person could die or get seriously injured. But the owner and employees of Awfis did not pay any attention to our complaint,” the complainant stated. Further, he alleged, " The incident happened because of this, and nine people of the company were seriously injured. Security arrangements and standards were not followed by Awfis company, which is also responsible for the safe operations of the lift.” The FIR was registered against Awfis employees under IPC sections 287 (negligent conduct concerning machinery), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), and 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), according to the police.

(With PTI inputs)