Raj Mehta, a retired SBI director, and father of Noida techie, said, "It was the first time in my life that I felt so helpless. My son died in front of my eyes. Will fight for justice and want all parties responsible for his death to be behind bars."
Yuvraj, 27, could not swim. His father, Raj Mehta, knew that every passing minute reduced his chances of survival. Raj could hear his son screaming from the water-filled trench, begging to be saved, yet could do nothing as rescue teams struggled to act. “Save me,” Yuvraj kept repeating. For nearly an hour, the cries echoed through the darkness before finally stopping.
Speaking to The Times of India (TOI) on Monday, Raj Mehta, a retired SBI director, said, “It was the first time in my life that I felt so helpless. My son died in front of my eyes. I will fight for justice and want all parties responsible for his death to be behind bars.”
Yuvraj had somehow managed to escape the car and call his father. “He said, ‘mera accident ho gaya hai, mujhe bacha lo papa (I've met with an accident, save me, papa)'. Soon after Yuvraj's call, I alerted police. On reaching the spot, I could hear him crying for help, but I couldn't help him,” Raj said.
Related Articles
“I am unable to sleep. I keep hearing his voice. I will fight for justice. I want accountability for Yuvraj's death,” he added.
Noida techie's fatal wait: Fire brigade took 45, SDRF 71 & NDRF 2 hrs
Despite the presence of nearly 80 rescuers including teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) help arrived too late. Raj believes his son could have survived if the response had been quicker. “Timely action could have saved Yuvraj's life. Why did the emergency response team take so long to act despite repeated alerts? Why was such a hazardous location left unsecured? This is not an accident, it is institutional failure,” he said.
He also questioned why the police emergency helpline lacked trained divers. “Had expert divers gone in when we reached the spot, they would have saved my son's life,” he said.
Raj and his family travelled to Haridwar on Monday to perform Yuvraj’s last rites. He said, “No father should have to go through this.”
Around midnight last Friday when Yuvraj, an employee of customer data science firm Dunnhumby India in Gurgaon, was driving home, his Grand Vitara crashed through a damaged boundary wall and plunged into a deep trench dug for a commercial project near ATS Le Grandiose.
The autopsy report confirmed asphyxia due to ante-mortem drowning, followed by cardiac arrest, as the cause of death.
Police sources said Raj Mehta dialled the 112 helpline at 12.06 am. A police response vehicle reached the site at 12.15 am, followed by personnel from the Knowledge Park police station around 12.30am. The fire brigade arrived at 12.50am. SDRF and NDRF teams reached at 1.15am and 1.55am, respectively.
According to Raj, his son continued shouting for help for nearly 90 minutes — until around 1.30am — before drowning. His body was recovered at around 4.30am.
The delay has sparked sharp questions over administrative preparedness and disaster response protocols barely 40km from the national capital. Yuvraj was just 1km from his home in Tata Eureka Park, Sector 150, when accident happened.
Eyewitnesses claimed police and firefighters hesitated to enter the trench due to iron rods jutting out. It remains unclear why the NDRF was not called in immediately. Additional commissioner (law and order) Rajeev Narayan Mishra said police and fire officials used cranes, ladders, a makeshift boat and searchlights, but dense fog severely reduced visibility.
A senior NDRF official said a team was dispatched as soon as information was received. “The place where the incident occurred is more than 40km away from our base in Ghaziabad. It was foggy on Friday night, so it took time to reach the spot. Our team did its best to save him. We had to see how to enter the pit. If you see visuals of the rescue, nothing was visible even 10 metres away,” the official said.
Responding to criticism that first responders could not swim, a senior police officer told TOI that the personnel present were from the civil police. “The mandate of the fire service is to fight fires. They do not have a provision to keep a boat. Rescue is the mandate of SDRF and NDRF. These officials were informed of the incident immediately, and they came and took charge of the scene and recovered the body.”
Referring to videos circulating online, the officer added, “You would have seen a video of an official using a rope in the rescue attempt. In any capacity, this rope does not extend beyond 25 metres. The car had dropped to a depth beyond 30 metres and gone beyond. Hydraulic capacity was only 25 metres. The operation was carried according to protocol.”
