The owner of the Sector 150 plot in Noida where a software engineer died earlier this month has told a local court that the site had been barricaded earlier, but the Noida Authority directed the removal of barricades carrying advertisements in July 2021, officials said.

The submission was made during a hearing in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Surajpur, Greater Noida, on Tuesday.

The developer also told the court that the Noida Authority imposed a penalty of Rs six lakh for allegedly illegal advertising at the site.

The court rejected the bail pleas of those arrested in the case and extended their judicial remand. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

According to officials, the developer linked the removal of barricades to the ban imposed on the Noida Sports City project in Sector 150 in January 2021.

The counsel appearing for Wiztown Planners stated that the plot had been barricaded before July 2021, but the authority ordered the removal of barricades displaying advertisements related to its ‘Artham’ project.

Wiztown Planners also told the court that it had raised repeated safety concerns with the Noida Authority much before the fatal incident.

In a letter dated March 14, 2022, addressed to the chief executive officer of the Authority, the company warned that the collapse of sewer and main drain lines maintained by the Authority had caused continuous inflow of sewage and drain water into its plot. This, it said, led to flooding of the basement and posed a serious accident risk.

The developer further cautioned that the adjoining road was sinking due to soil erosion and water pressure, and that even the barricading at the site was collapsing.

It urged the Authority to restore damaged sewer lines and remove accumulated water to avert an accident, as per its submission.

Officials said the plot was initially owned by Lotus Greens and was transferred to Wiztown Planners in 2019–20 with the approval of the Noida Authority.

Responding to these claims, a senior Noida Authority official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the action against the Artham project was restricted to illegal advertising.

“The authority never asked the developer to compromise on safety measures. Plain barricades could have been installed without advertisements,” the official said.

The issue has drawn sharp attention following the death of software engineer Yuvraj Mehta, who drowned after his car fell into a waterlogged pit near a construction site in Sector 150 on the intervening night of January 16 and 17.

The incident sparked public outrage, protests by residents and allegations of negligence against both developers and the Noida Authority.

Police have arrested Abhay Kumar, director of MZ Wiztown Planners, and two associates of Lotus Greens, Ravi Bansal and Sachin Karanwal, in connection with the case.

An FIR has been registered under sections including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence. A separate case has also been filed against officials of the two firms for alleged violations of environmental norms.

A special investigation team set up by the Uttar Pradesh government has examined the matter.

Earlier findings had also pointed to warnings from the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department, which had flagged the need to build head regulators in Sector 150 to flush rainwater and drainage into the Hindon river.

A communication issued in 2023 stated that funds had been allocated for the project, but the work was never carried out.