One Man, One Rope, One Choice: Moninder’s Lone Dive Into the Icy Pit When Time Was Running Out
On the foggy night of January 17, 2026, a mishap took place in Greater Noida’s Sector 150 area, where a delivery agent named Moninder became the only brave person amid the turmoil. When the car of Yuvraj Mehta, a 27-year-old software engineer, fell into a 30-foot-deep, water-filled construction pit, Moninder arrived at the scene around 1:45 am and found that rescue operations were being held up by fear and confusion. With freezing cold conditions, zero visibility, and iron rods submerged under the water, the rescuers were unwilling to go down into the pit.
Moninder, on the other hand, did not give up. Prompted by urgency and compassion, he firmly secured a rope around himself and went down into the water, alone. He spent nearly 30 minutes searching in the perilous pit without any visibility, hoping to find the trapped engineer. His attempt was in vain, but his bravery and selflessness stood out. He turned an ordinary delivery run into an extraordinary act of courage, choosing humanity over safety.
One Hour, Forty-Five Minutes, and a Question That Refuses to Sink
On top of his sinking vehicle, Yuvraj Mehta waited helplessly. The 27-year-old tech professional signalled for help with his phone’s light through the fog for nearly one hour and forty-five minutes as the water slowly rose. Dozens of people watched. Rescue teams arrived, but nobody went in.
Moninder, a delivery agent, later said that over a hundred people, including police, fire brigade, and SDRF personnel, were standing by, watching as time slipped away. “Had help arrived ten minutes earlier, he would have survived,” he was told. Adding to the anger, Moninder revealed that the same pit had witnessed another accident earlier, where locals, not officials, rescued a trapped driver.
The question remains: when every minute mattered, why did courage arrive so late?
Too Late to Save, Too Heavy to Forget: Explanations, Grief, and an Unanswered Why
While police officials have claimed that there was no oversight on their part, the accounts provided by them are not very reassuring for a night that ended in tragedy. Additional Commissioner of Police Rajeev Narayan Mishra said that extremely dense fog reduced visibility to near zero and that the site was riddled with dangers, like a maze, which delayed rescue operations despite the use of cranes, ladders, makeshift boats, and searchlights. Still, time kept slipping away.
Yuvraj Mehta’s body was recovered around 4:30 am after more than five long hours of despair, with the help of the fire department, SDRF, NDRF, and local police. In the aftermath, a junior engineer was removed and real estate developers were booked, actions that came far too late to hold any meaning for the grieving family.
Aishwarya is a journalism graduate with over three years of experience thriving in the buzzing corporate media world. She’s got a knack for decoding business news, tracking the twists and turns of the stock market, covering the masala of the entertainment world, and sometimes her stories come with just the right sprinkle of political commentary. She has worked with several organizations, interned at ZEE and gained professional skills at TV9 and News24, And now is learning and writing at NewsX, she’s no stranger to the newsroom hustle. Her storytelling style is fast-paced, creative, and perfectly tailored to connect with both the platform and its audience. Moto: Approaching every story from the reader’s point of view, backing up her insights with solid facts.
Always bold with her opinions, she also never misses the chance to weave in expert voices, keeping things balanced and insightful. In short, Aishwarya brings a fresh, sharp, and fact-driven voice to every story she touches.
