NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday removed Noida Authority chief executive officer Lokesh M and ordered an inquiry into the death of a 27-year-old software engineer who drowned in a water-filled excavation pit on a vacant plot in Sector 150.
The government’s decision to remove Lokesh coincided with chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s order to set up a special investigation team (SIT) led by additional director general (ADG), Meerut Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar to probe the circumstances leading to the tragic incident. The Meerut divisional commissioner and the chief engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) will be its members.
An official statement said the panel has been ordered to submit its report within five days.
The government order, which removed Lokesh from the CEO’s post on Monday, did not assign him another posting but kept him on compulsory wait.
As CEO, Lokesh M, a 2005-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was responsible for the authority’s daily administration, civic planning and enforcement functions. He had taken over in July 2023.
The move comes amid public outrage over a software engineer, Yuvraj Mehta, losing his life after his SUV skidded amid dense fog and plunged into a large, water-filled excavation pit at an under-construction site.
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. Teams from the police, fire department, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) arrived but were thwarted by a combination of darkness, thick fog, and the pit’s distance from the road.
A police officer involved in the operation detailed a series of failed attempts: ropes thrown fell short; a crane and ladders deployed by firefighters could not bridge the gap. For nearly ninety minutes, Mehta stood atop the car until it sank completely. “Due to dense fog, the NDRF took time to reach from Ghaziabad. Eventually, his body was recovered using a boat,” the officer said.
An FIR has been lodged against two real estate developers for alleged negligence, including the absence of barricades, reflectors and adequate safety measures at the site.
Noida Authority officials, speaking anonymously, cited overspeeding and near-zero visibility as primary causes for the accident. But the administrative punishments later suggested internal recognition of supervisory failure.
On Sunday evening, Lokesh announced that show-cause notices had been issued to staff responsible for traffic-related work in Sector 150, and that the services of a junior engineer had been terminated with immediate effect.