Noida techie death: Car submerged, man pleading for help from roof | Heartbreaking details as helpless father watched

WLid was supposed to be a habitue transpose to place turned come out to be a gut-wrenching incident that ended in the tragic death of a 27-year-old software engineer in Noida. The incident has raised questions about the safety of citizens in cities that boast of state-of-the-art infrastructure.Twenty-seven-year-old Yuvraj Mehta's car early on Saturday plunged into a water-filled pit of a construction site in Noida, and he died nearly after two hours of calling and screaming for help as his father watched helplessly from the road, trying to help but failing without resources.Yuvraj worked in a software company in Gurugram and lived with his father, Raj Kumar Mehta, in a high-rise in Sector 150. His mother had passed away almost two years ago.Also read: BJP ‘unhappy’ with BMC results despite historic sweep, reviewing what went wrongEyewitnesses said that Yuvraj ended up in the pit due to dense fog limiting visibility, and couldn't be saved despite the police arriving at the site.Pleaded for help from top of his partially submerged carAt around midnight, Yuvraj made a desperate call for help to his father after he was trapped. His father rushed to the spot.“My son himself called me while he was trapped. He said, ‘Papa, I am stuck, the car has fallen into the drain’,” Raj Kumar told HT.Also read: Kuki victim of gangrape in Manipur ethnic violence dies after nearly 3 years of struggle with injuries, mental traumaHe alleged that even though the police reached the spot, they couldn't do much to save Yuvraj as they did not have a swimmer with them. "If there had been a swimmer, someone could have reached him, as the water was very deep,” he said.Yuvraj’s friends also said the teams were unable to respond in a timely manner. “The rescue teams arrived only by 2.30am and could not even enter the water till 3.20am,” said Pankaj, a friend of the deceased.Also read: ‘If Sena wasn't divided’, ‘if some switch’, what data says: Decoding the many ‘ifs’ in BMC, Maharashtra resultsAs Yuvraj's father, the police, and some eyewitnesses watched from the road, Yuvraj stood atop his partially submerged car, pleading for help. He managed to get out of the car and climbed onto its roof, from where he called his father, Yuvraj's friend Pankaj Tokas told The Indian Express.“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,” Tokas further added.An eyewitness, Moninder, who eventually tried to help, said, “For around one hour and forty-five minutes, he kept pleading for help, saying, ‘please save me, save me in any way possible',"By the time he reached, Moninder claimed, Yuvraj Mehta had possibly already died. “The boy had drowned about 10 minutes before I reached. I told them (rescuers) to come out and said I would go inside. They came out. I took off my clothes, tied a rope around my waist, and went at least 50 metres inside the water.” He could not find the body or the car. The body was eventually found some time later.He alleged that emergency responders on site refused to enter the water, citing cold temperature and potential hazards below the water surface. “The police were present at the spot, along with the SDRF (UP's State Disaster Response Force). Fire brigade personnel were also there. But no one helped him. They were saying, ‘The water is too cold. We won’t go inside. There are iron rods inside. We won’t go',” he said.What FIR, police sayIn his police complaint, accessed by Hindustan Times, Raj Kumar alleged that residents of Sector 150 had requested the Noida authority to install barricading and reflectors near the drain, but no action was taken.Police said the boundary wall of the water pit was damaged in parts. However, the police said, it was unclear how the car plunged into the basement and was fully submerged. Poor visibility due to fog and speeding are being seen as some of the reasons that caused the major mishap.Police said they made all possible efforts to save Yuvraj but rescue became difficult due to the depth of the water darkness and the dense fog. "We were afraid that there could be more casualties if someone entered the water to rescue him. It could have been worse for us,” Hemant Upadhyay, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Greater Noida, said. FIR against buildersAn FIR has been registered against two builders who own the plot where the accident took place.“On the complaint of the deceased’s father, a case at Knowledge Park police station under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 106 (causing death by negligence) and 125 (act endangering life) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered against the two builders who own the plot,” Upadhyay told HT. With inputs from Arun Singh, Asmita Seth