Noida techie death: Police alerted at 12.06 am, Yuvraj drowned at 2.30. Rescuers reached around 4 am
Night of tragedy at Noida Sector 150: For two hours, the techie stood atop his car, crying for help, before he drowned. What happened during this period? The Indian Express breaks it down.
Yuvraj Mehta, 27, was returning home when his car plunged into the drain at Noida Sector 150. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra) The first police vehicle was at the spot minutes after 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta drove his car into a swamp in Noida’s Sector 150 late on Friday night, and a full team of nine policemen reached in less than half an hour after that.
Yuvraj drowned a full two hours later, screaming for help and finding none, as police and fire services personnel made efforts to rescue him, even as they waited for equipment and specialists to arrive, according to a detailed account of the tragedy provided by sources in the Noida Police.
Yuvraj, a software professional who was returning to his home in Noida from Gurgaon in his Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, went off the road in the thick fog and over a low, partially broken boundary wall into an empty plot on which a deep pit had been dug for the construction of a large building several years ago.
The pit was full of water, but Yuvraj appears to have managed to get out of the car, which was only partially submerged at the time, and call his father from his mobile phone. He then waited, shouting for help in the dark, as the vehicle slipped slowly into the swamp.
Yuvraj’s went off the road in the thick fog and over a low, partially broken boundary wall into an empty plot on which a deep pit had been dug for the construction. (Express Photo)
The car was still under water on Monday evening, and police officers said they were not sure of the plan for fishing it out.
According to officials, the car went off the road just after midnight on Friday, and the first call was made to the Police Response Vehicle (PRV) at 12.06 am on Saturday by Yuvraj’s father Raj Mehta.
Around the same time, Raj Mehta set out on foot for the spot from their home in Tata Eureka Park, around 900 metres away, the officials said. Raj Mehta himself could not be reached for his version.
A friend of Yuvraj’s has alleged that the police were afraid to go into the water themselves. (Express Photo/Amit Mehra)
Police officials said the first PRV team reached the location within minutes of receiving the call, but could not find Yuvraj’s car. The PRV returned at 12.20 am, after Raj Mehta made a second call, the officials said.
By 12.30 am, a team of nine police officers, including those stationed at the local police chowki, had reached the spot. The first call to the Gautam Budh Nagar Fire Station was also made around the same time.
The Station House Officer (SHO) of the Knowledge Park Police Station in Greater Noida received information about the incident at 12.40 am, and reached the spot by 1 am along with four other policemen, officials said. Fire Services reached almost simultaneously, the officials said.
The officials said Yuvraj had drowned around 2.30 am. (Express Photo/Amit Mehra)
According to the sources, the local police made their own efforts to reach Mehta, including calling for mobile cranes and looking for divers in the nearby villages.
A friend of Yuvraj’s has alleged that the police were afraid to go into the water themselves. A passerby named Moninder who did enter the swamp but was unable to reach Yuvraj has alleged that the policemen said the water was cold, and that there could be submerged iron rods in the foundation pit dug for the construction on the plot.
According to officials, calls were made to the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) between 1.02 am and 1.10 am. Both these teams are stationed in Ghaziabad, and the SDRF reached at 3:45 am, and the NDRF reached at 4.15 am.
The officials said Yuvraj had drowned around 2.30 am.
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