Allahabad High Court orders release of Wiztown director in Noida techie death case

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday ordered the immediate release of Abhay Kumar, director of MZ Wiztown Planners, after finding that his arrest in connection with the Noida techie death case was carried out without following mandatory procedures. [Abhay Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr]

A Bench of Justices Siddhartha and Jai Krishna Upadhyay observed that the police had failed to follow procedure under Clause 13 of the arrest memo, which requires informing the accused of the reasons for their arrest and providing them with a copy of the memo before taking them into custody.

The High Court quashed the judicial remand orders issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar on January 20 and 21.

Kumar was arrested by the Greater Noida Police following the registration of a first information report (FIR) in connection with the death of 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta.

Mehta drowned when his car fell into a water-filled trench at an undeveloped site in Sector 150, Noida on January 16.

The trench had developed due to inadequate stormwater management and the site had remained undeveloped under Wiztown Planners’ control for years.

According to reports, the police had booked Kumar under sections including culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Senior Advocate Manu Sharma along with Advocates Sinha Shrey Nikhilesh, Swastik Verma and Ram Kaushik appeared for the petitioner.

Assistant Government Advocate Arvind Kumar appeared for the State.

[Read Order]