Cops asked me to stay quiet: Shocking claim by witness as Noida techie’s car pulled out

THe dying of a tekki in Uttar Pradesh's Noida endure weekend in a lusus naturae misadventure has opened a can of worms, exposing safety lapses that were flagged earlier but never acted upon, and an alleged attempt by the police to cover up the incident, according to a witness.Returning home from Haryana's Gurugram in the early hours of Saturday, 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta was killed after his car skidded in dense fog, broke the drain boundary and fell into a deep, waterlogged pit dug for the basement of an under-construction commercial complex near a drain in Sector 150 of Noida.A 26-year-old delivery executive a key witness to techie's death apart from his father has alleged that police officers pressured him to stay away from the media for 10 days.This development in the case comes amid reports that uncovered a UP Irrigation Department letter to the Noida Authority which flagged the need to construct head regulators to flush out accumulated rain and drain water in Sector 150, Noida. The project was never taken up.Noida techie death | Shocking revelations so far-What happened: Yuvraj Mehta died in the early hours of Saturday after his car skidded in dense fog, broke the drain boundary and fell into a deep, waterlogged pit dug for the basement of an under-construction commercial complex near a drain in Sector 150. According to police, Mehta managed to climb onto the roof of his submerged vehicle and called his father, who rushed to the scene and alerted emergency services. It was earlier reported that police teams, fire department, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) arrived shortly but the rescue operation was thwarted by a combination of darkness, thick fog, and the pit’s distance from the road.-Car pulled out after days: The car involved in the accident, a Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, was pulled out on Tuesday, a couple of days after the incident. After its retrieval, the National Disaster Response Team reportedly loaded up the vehicle in a truck. The state government formed an Special Investigation Team (SIT ) to probe the incident. Police on Tuesday arrested MZ Wiztown Planner Pvt Ltd promoter Abhay Kumar from the Sector 150 area. -Witness's U-turn: A man, who identified himself as Moninder Singh, has become central to the investigation after he after two short videos of him went viral. In one of the videos he was heard alleging inaction by police and other rescue teams, saying they avoided going into the water to rescue the man citing temperature and other issues. Another video later surfaced in which he was seen backtracking from his statement, saying that police came to the accident site within 15 minutes and could not save the man despite all efforts as their was dense fog. -Was pressured by police, says witness: Singh, a resident of Noida’s Sector 150 and a delivery executive, later said he was pressured by police to stay away from media for a few days. “I was called to the police station and they forcefully recorded another video of me after giving me a script,” Moninder Singh told HT on Tuesday, adding, “I was forced to sit in a park close to the police station for more than four-and-a-half hours.”-'Police asked me to stay shut': Singh said he was called by the police saying that senior officers wanted to talk to me regarding the case. "When I went there, three to four officers took me to a nearby park close to Knowledge Park police station and scolded me for speaking to the media.. I was directed to give statements in favour of the police, saying that cops were inside the water and did all possible efforts to rescue Yuvraj Mehta,” an earlier HT report quoted Singh as saying.- ‘Police gave script’: Singh said he was verbally given a script to record a video and out of fear, he agreed. “They also verbally gave me a script and recorded a video. As I was scared, I said ‘okay’ and agreed to follow the directions, but I decided that I am the only eyewitness in the case and I will stand with the truth. My family and locals are supporting me,” Singh said.-Satellite images: Parallelly to the above developments, satellite images on Google Earth showed that a large water body began appearing from late 2021 at the Sector 150 plot where the software engineer drowned, with the excavation remaining submerged and unsecured for over three years despite surrounding road and infrastructure development. A review of Google Earth images from April 2009 to March 2025, cited in a PTI news agency report, shows the land was under agriculture until at least 2015, with crop patterns and irrigation lines clearly visible. No large water body appears in satellite imagery until November 2021. An X user who identified himself as an OSINT enthusiast also shared a satellite image claiming to be of the same. -Water pit remained unattended: Satellite images from November 2021, following that year's monsoon, for the first time show a large water body emerging at the site. Stagnant dark water, algae growth and partially submerged construction material, indicating prolonged abandonment, was seen in images of subsequent years. The most recent Google Earth image from March 2025 shows the pit still intact, filled with water and surrounded by overgrowth, while the adjoining roads appear fully developed.-Construction issue was flagged earlier, plea went unheard: Another revelation that pointed to lapses from authorities was a UP Irrigation Department letter to the Noida Authority that flagged the need to construct head regulators to flush out accumulated rain and drain water in Noida's Sector 150. The project was not taken up. Locals who carried out protest marches, cited in another PTI report, said the mishap could have been avoided if the proposed head regulators been constructed, as the accumulated water would have been flushed out instead of stagnating at the site. When contacted, a Noida Authority official Monday said he was not aware of the letter from the Irrigation Department, which was accessed by the news agency.(With inputs from Arun Singh)