Sunetra Pawar-Led NCP Delegation Seeks CBI Probe Into Ajit Pawar Plane Crash
NCP urges Centre to investigate plane crash, citing irregularities
Mumbai: Days after NCP-SP legislator Rohith Pawar alleged sabotage as the reason for the air crash that killed his uncle Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, wife of the late leader, on Tuesday met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded a CBI probe.
Senior NCP leader Sunil Tatkare said that Fadnavis had assured them that the state government would communicate with the Union Home Ministry in this regard.
Earlier in the day, the aircraft accident probe agency, AAIB, said that special support has been sought for the retrieval of data from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 plane involved in the fatal crash.
Sunetra Pawar was accompanied by her elder son Parth as well as senior leaders Tatkare, Praful Patel and Hassan Mushrif.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar and four others were killed in a plane crash at Baramati in Pune district on January 28.
“The chief minister has assured us that the state government will communicate with the Union Home Ministry in this regard. The government has already initiated a probe by independent agencies and has said it will order a CBI investigation. We feel probe by the central agency would be comprehensive,” Tatkare said, according to PTI.
The NCP legislature party is fully behind Sunetra Pawar, and there is no dissent, he said.
Tatkare said that BJP state president Ravindra Chavan met him at the NCP office and discussed the way forward for the Mahayuti alliance after its victory in the recent Zilla Parishad.
Tatkare also said that incidents such as bribery in NCP Minister Narhari Zirwal's office in Mantralaya last week malign the image of the government and ministers.
Ministers have been asked to ensure such incidents don't recur and that appointments in their offices are made after proper scrutiny, he said.
Last week, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) caught a clerk from the Food and Drug Administration department red-handed while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 35,000 at the state secretariat, Mantralaya.