From sports city to death trap: How corruption killed Yuvraj Mehta

The pit where software engineer Yuvraj Mehta died was flagged years earlier.

Transcript

00:00This is what the pit where Yovaraj died looked like in 2021.

00:03Five years of corruption and negligence later, this is what it became.

00:06According to PTI, in 2023, the UP Irrigation Department had written to the Noida Authority

00:10drawing the need to drain the same pit where Yovaraj drowned.

00:13But the letter, obviously, was lost in files.

00:15The project was never taken up.

00:16It was not just rainwater that kept accumulating,

00:18but also discharges from nearby residential societies.

00:21Ultimately, it swallowed Yovaraj.

00:23Before you think it had anything to do with the lack of funds,

00:25the Irrigation Department had reportedly already made the budgetary provisions.

00:29But this doesn't end here.

00:30What follows is a textbook example of institutional corruption.

00:33According to the Allahabad High Court,

00:35according to this India Today report by Balakrishna and Pathikrit Sanyal,

00:38the Maki pit where Yovaraj drowned was meant to be a world-class sports complex.

00:42A decade ago, land in Noida sector 150 was allotted to lotus greens

00:46at heavily discounted rates under the Noida Sports City project,

00:49on the condition that 70% of the area would be developed

00:51as international standard sports infrastructure.

00:54Construction was to be completed by 2021.

00:56Instead, developers shifted focus to luxury housing and commercial projects.

01:00Matter reached the courts.

01:02In February 2025, the Allahabad High Court called this a 9,000 crore rupee scam

01:06and a textbook case of institutional corruption involving builders and the Noida authority.

01:11The court also ordered a CBI probe.

01:13The Investigation Bureau had flagged the details of the fraud too.

01:15But what ultimately happened?

01:16No.

01:20No.

01:22No.

01:23No.

01:34No.