The sprawling swamp ringed by tall grasses, into the murky, foul-smelling depths of which a Noida software professional fell with his car at midnight on January 16, appears to have come into existence in 2022 – covering low-lying land that has been the subject of litigation since 2021, and of an investigation by the CBI since last year.
A director of the real estate company that has possession of the land in Noida’s Sector 150 was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the death by drowning of 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta. Yuvraj’s grey Grand Vitara was fished out of the water on Tuesday evening, three and a half days after the tragedy.
In 2021, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) listed a series of failures by the Noida Authority in the allotment of land for a proposed “Sports City” in Sector 150, of which the plot in question was a part. On Monday, the UP government removed the Chief Executive Officer of Noida Authority from his post and set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the circumstances of Yuvraj’s death.
Last year, the Allahabad High Court delivered a sweeping indictment of the “scam” in the allotment of the land, and directed the CBI to register a First Information Report (FIR) against both the builders and government officials.
Noida’s ‘Sports City’
In 2004, the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) decided to develop sports facilities of international standard in Noida. Ten years later, in 2014, NOIDA invited applications for the allotment of almost 12 lakh sq m (120 hectares) of land under a scheme to develop a “Sports City” (SC-02) in Sector 150, with a reserve price of Rs 18,865 per sq m.
The developer was supposed to create sports facilities over 70% of the entire land area, which would be non-transferable. To offset the cost of developing these facilities, the developer was allowed to build group housing on 29.5% of the land, and commercial establishments on the remaining 0.5%.
The project was awarded to a consortium led by real estate company Lotus Green Constructions Pvt Ltd for more than Rs 2,300 crore. The sporting facilities at the plot were to be developed by December 2019 and the residential facilities by December 2021.
In 2015, the land parcel under Lotus Green was subdivided into 24 plots, one of which, SC-02/A-3, was to be developed by M/s Wiztown Planners Pvt Ltd. Wiztown director Abhay Kumar has been arrested in connection with Yuvraj’s death.
In 2017, NOIDA extended deadlines for completion of the residential and commercial facilities in the project to September 2023.
In 2021, a CAG report flagged various deficiencies in the scheme, as well as alleged irregularities by NOIDA – including the launch of the scheme without requisite government approvals on change of land-utilisation category, failure to recover charges of more than Rs 140 crore, and allowing unauthorised subdivision of the plots.
The CAG concluded that NOIDA and the UP government had suffered a loss of Rs 9,000 crore in the entire Sports City project, which also included areas under Sports City-1 (SC-01) in Sectors 78, 79, and 152 of Noida. The report recommended: “The Government needs to consider fixing responsibility on the concerned officials.”
In June 2021, NOIDA froze all activities in Sports City, and referred the matter to the state government for direction. A Public Accounts Committee comprising members of the UP Legislative Assembly was constituted to look into the issue.
Meanwhile, Lotus Green moved Allahabad High Court that same year, seeking relief on its disputes with Noida Authority with regard to the terms of the deal.
But in its order passed on February 24, 2025, the High Court observed that “such a scam of massive magnitude cannot happen without the involvement of officers of NOIDA Authority holding the key posts”, and directed CBI to lodge an FIR against “conniving officials of NOIDA” and private individuals, builders or allottees involved in the alleged scam.
The HC said officials had “kept their eyes closed, while the builders were selling and developing the residential apartments, but did not do anything towards the development of the sports facilities, which they were supposed to develop first”.
Lotus Green challenged the HC’s order in the Supreme Court. On March 7, 2025, the top court allowed investigations to proceed, but directed that “no coercive steps” should be taken.
On March 17, 2025, the CBI registered an FIR against Lotus Green, three of its directors, unknown public servants of Noida Authority, and unknown private persons and entities for alleged offences including cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), as well as for alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Waterlogged plot
From 2022 onward, a large volume of water allegedly began to accumulate on the plot, on which some construction, including the excavation of a “basement”, appears to have already taken place.
On March 14, 2022, one of the directors of Wiztown Planners Pvt Ltd wrote to the CEO of NOIDA, expressing “serious concern on the continuous drain/ sewer water flowing into our plot SC-02 A/3, owing to the collapse of the Noida Authority’s sewer and main drain line at 2-3 places”.
The letter complained that the “entire basement area is now filled with drainage and sewer water”, which “can result in serious mishap…if these sewer/ drain lines are not restored immediately”, and the water is pumped out.
Noida Authority appears to have been cognizant of a general problem of accumulation of water in Sector 150 for several years before this alleged inflow of drain water into the plot in question.
A letter from the executive engineer of the Ghaziabad irrigation construction block sent to Noida Authority on October 9, 2023, recalled that discussions on building a canal and “head regulator” to direct the flow of accumulated rain water in Noida’s Sector 150 to the Hindon river nearby had been ongoing since 2015.
The death of a Noida software professional in a waterlogged Sector 150 plot has highlighted years of alleged land allotment irregularities under the Sports City project. (ANI Video Grab)
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