Noida CEO sacked over Techie’s death, CM orders SIT probe

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday removed Noida Authority CEO M Lokesh following the death of a 27-year-old software engineer in Noida, whose car fell in a water-filled pit amid dense fog. A 2005-batch IAS officer, Lokesh was also relieved as the Managing Director of the Noida Metro Rail Corporation. He has been put on ‘waitlist.' Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an SIT probe into the incident. A three-member SIT will inquire into the circumstances leading to the accident in Sector 150, where 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta’s car plunged into a water-filled pit at a construction site two days ago, a senior official said.The SIT will be headed by Additional Director General (ADG), Meerut Zone, with Meerut divisional commissioner and chief engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) will be part of the panel as members.
The victim, Yuvraj Mehta, a software engineer working in Gurugram and resident of Noida's Tata Eureka Park, died late on January 16 after his car plunged into a water-filled excavation pit dug for the basement of an under-construction building near Sector 150 in Noida. Mehta was returning home from work when the vehicle lost control and fell into the 30-foot unbarricaded pit amid poor visibility due to dense fog.
Police said information about the incident was received around 12:15 am, but the body could only be recovered the next morning following a prolonged rescue operation involving the fire department, local police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).