Republic Impact: Noida Authority CEO Removed Over Techie Death Case

Noida: Noida authority CEO Lokesh M has been removed by the Yogi Government in a crackdown following the death of a 27-year-old techie, Yuvraj Mehta, who passed away after his speeding car crashed into a flooded basement in Noida's Sector-150. This comes after reports of a junior engineer within the Noida Traffic Cell, Naveen Kumar, being sacked by the Noida authority with immediate effect earlier today. It has also come to light that the warning signs have been ignored for several days, as there is evidently a lack of street lights, among other basic infrastructure and amenities in the area. 

SIT team formed

The Uttar Pradesh government took immediate cognisance of the matter after Republic TV reported earlier today that residents have been flagging security concerns in the area for quite some time. Despite multiple complaints from the residents regarding the lack of street lights, no action was taken by the authorities. A 3-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed by the UP government to carry on further investigation. 

The focus of the investigation would to examine and hold accountable the concerned people who paid no heed to the residents' repeated complaints, so much so, that the tragic death of Mehta brought attention to these persistent, glaring concerns. The SIT has been formed under the leadership of the Additional Director General (ADG) of the Meerut Zone. Besides the ADG, the Divisional Commissioner, Meerut, and the Chief Engineer PWD are also part of the SIT. 

This acknowledgement from the authorities comes a day after the victim's father told Republic TV that his son's death could have been prevented only if the authorities were equipped with better resources to assist them in the rescue procedure. The SIT is expected to conduct the investigation and submit its report to the Chief Minister within 5 days.

What happened on the night of the accident

As per reports, the victim lost control of his vehicle due to dense fog conditions, resulting in the car breaching a wall and becoming submerged in a basement filled with water.  Following a specialised recovery operation by the SDRF and NDRF lasting hours, the individual, who was extracted from a depth of 30 feet, was declared dead by the hospital on arrival.

While the SDRF arrived, they lacked the proper equipment to help. It wasn't until an NDRF team arrived from Ghaziabad that a specialised operation using steamers was launched. They recovered Yuvraj after two and a half hours, but he was pronounced dead at Kailash Hospital.

Yuvraj was a resident of the Tata Eureka Park Society in Sector-150 and worked as a software engineer at Dunnhumby India in Gurugram. Mehta primarily worked from home, visiting the Sector-54 office only on occasion. According to sources, the victim was driving his Grand Vitara back from the Gurugram office on Friday night and was only about 500 meters from his residence when thick fog obscured his view, causing him to strike a drain wall, following which the vehicle plunged into a water-filled basement, where the high water levels caused the car to flip over and float.

(This is a developing story.)