Noida: Police probing the death of a BSc student in a water-filled pit behind the Supernova building in Sector 94 said no evidence of murder has emerged so far, and a closure report may be filed soon.Harshit Bhatt was an undergraduate pursuing a physical education degree from Amity University in Sector 125. On Wednesday, Harshit went for a picnic with his friends after writing his final sixth-semester exam paper.Around 3.30pm, he and his three friends – Vyas, Krish and Himanshu – decided to take a dip in the pit. Harshit went in first and, after completing two laps around the pit, he ventured towards the centre. He did not realise the depth and got stuck in the sludge. When he started to drown, his friends tried to rescue him. However, they failed and called for help.Police, divers and teams from the fire department, SDRF and NDRF reached the spot. Using ropes, rescuers descended into the pit and recovered Harshit from around 10 metres inside. He was taken to hospital, where doctors declared him dead. His body was sent for an autopsy.A case was registered at Sector 126 police station following a complaint by Harshit’s mother, who accused his three friends of possible involvement and sought a fair investigation. Acting on the complaint, police registered a case against the friends.Deepmala said her son was a trained swimmer and questioned how he could have drowned under such circumstances. She also alleged suspicious injury marks on his body, including a V-shaped mark on his back and dark bruises on his limbs, which she believes could have been from an assault.Investigators have examined the mobile phones of all four individuals and are analysing chats and messages exchanged between them. Police have also scanned more than 100 CCTV cameras installed around the incident site and are relying on postmortem findings to reconstruct the sequence of events. Statements of the three friends have been recorded, and inputs have been gathered from university students and staff members familiar with the group.Sources said there are no inconsistencies in the statements given by the three friends, and initial findings do not indicate any signs of homicide.Police said the postmortem report attributes the death to drowning and does not indicate any grievous injuries suggestive of violence. Further investigation is ongoing.The site itself is under scrutiny too. The proposed convention centre project, being developed by UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd, has been stalled since 2022 after the tender was cancelled. Police said the land had been sublet and soil was allegedly being excavated illegally.Harshit’s death has again raised questions over safety at unsecured construction sites in Noida. In Jan, a 27-year-old software engineer, Yuvraj Mehta, drowned in a similar water-filled pit in Sector 150.
