By Admin 
In the case of death of a software engineer by drowning in a deep pit dug for the construction of basement near Noida Sector-150, the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of accused Ravi Bansal and Sachin Karanwal, associated with Lotus Green Builder, till January 29. Whereas the judicial custody of Abhay Kumar, director of MZ Wisetown Builder Company, was extended till February 2.
Assistant government advocate Sanjeev Tripathi said that the hearing started at around 3 pm. Advocates appearing for Lotus Green argued that the two arrested accused are not directors or decision-making officers of the company, but are salaried employees. He said that the arrest was made under administrative and police pressure without a thorough investigation and the guidelines of the Supreme Court were not followed.
The defense told the court that a detailed report of about 500 pages has been submitted by the company, which includes technical details related to the incident site, GPS enabled satellite images and old records.
Waterlogging situation continues since 2021
According to the advocates, there was a situation of waterlogging after the drain was damaged in the year 2021, information about which was given to the Noida Authority and funds were also approved for the repair, but the work was not done. In such a situation, it is unfair to put the responsibility only on lower level employees.
During the arguments, the defense argued that the police did not clearly assess the role of the accused nor did they tell on what basis they were sent to jail. Big builders and people holding top positions are still out of arrest, while lower level employees have been made accused. On this basis, regular bail was demanded.
Investigating officer could not read 500 page report, court reprimanded
During the hearing, the court asked the investigating officer about the study of the 500-page report. The court appeared dissatisfied when the investigating officer said that since the report was very large, he could not get time to read it completely and a few more days were needed.
The CJM said that even in the last hearing, the investigating officer was instructed to come fully prepared, yet the report was not studied. Calling it serious negligence, the court reprimanded the investigator.