"The Real Question Is...": Akhilesh Yadav On Noida Engineer's 'Party' Video

Amid the online chatter over a purported video of Noida techie Yuvraj Mehta hours before he drowned in a ditch, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has said the question is not whether the 27-year-old was returning from a party or not, but why he could not be saved.

Yuvraj was returning from Gurugram to his home in Noida's Sector 150 late on Friday night when his Grand Vitara car overshot a sharp turn and landed in a water-filled ditch. He called his father for help, who alerted the cops. Police and firefighters reached the spot, but could not help Yuvraj out of the ditch. Ninety minutes after the accident, the young software engineer drowned in the ditch.

Eyewitnesses have alleged that the cops refused to jump into the water because it was cold and they feared injury due to rods in the ditch, but police have trashed the allegations and said dense fog disrupted rescue efforts.

Speaking to the media today, Yadav said, "The question is not whether he was returning from a party or the location where the incident took place. The question is why government officials could not save him after the incident."

"It is being said that the officials had reached the spot, but did not step forward to save him because the water was cold. That engineer lost his life due to the government's negligence," he said.

A purported video of Yuvraj Mehta is now doing the rounds on social media. It shows him hanging out with some other people. While some have used the video to claim that Yuvraj was driving drunk, others have pointed out that the big question remains why the administration could not save him for 90 minutes despite officials reaching the spot. Yadav said the video of Yuvraj from before the incident should not be aired. "What has the government done to prevent the recurrence of such an incident?"