Mumbai: In his first reaction, several hours after nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s death in an air crash at Baramati on Wednesday morning, an emotional Sharad Pawar ruled out any conspiracy behind the incident.
“There’s no conspiracy involved; it’s purely an accident. Maharashtra has suffered a huge loss with the passing of Ajit Pawar. A capable leader has left us today. Maharashtra has lost a great personality today. This loss can never be compensated,” Sharad Pawar, Ajit’s uncle, said, as reported by NDTV.
Ajit Pawar broke away from his uncle Sharad Pawar to join hands with the BJP in 2023. It led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party. The two NCP factions recently came together though to contest the municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
“Everything is not in our hands. I feel helpless. Crying may seem shameful. Some incidents have no politics behind them, and I have clearly stated my stance on this. There’s no conspiracy involved; it’s purely an accident. Maharashtra and all of us will have to bear the pain of this forever,” the 85-year-old patriarch added.
Soon after news of Ajit Pawar’s death broke, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called for a
Supreme Court-monitored probe into the death, alleging that “all other agencies” have been “completely compromised”, with several opposition leaders including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge backing her demand.
Sharad Pawar dismissed that charge though.
“A stand was floated from Kolkata that there is some politics involved in this incident. But there is nothing like this. There is no politics in it. It was an accident. I request not to bring politics into it,” the veteran politician said.
Ajit Pawar’s aircraft, a Bombardier Learjet 45 operated by private firm VSR Aviation, was en route from Mumbai to his home city, Baramati, in the Pune district when it crash-landed and burst into flames in an open field near the runway around 8.48 am. Witnesses said the plane was barely 100 metres from the runway when it crashed.
The 66-year-old’s personal security officer, a flight attendant, as well as two crew members were also on board at the time of the crash, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement.
VSR Aviation owner V K Singh had earlier said that the 16-year-old aircraft was “very well maintained”, ruling out any technical failure.
“There was absolutely no problem in the aircraft. There was no technical failure as far as we know,” he told reporters.
The government released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Pawar’s death.
The aircraft was trying to land amid poor visibility, civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu told reporters in Pune.
Teams from the DGCA and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) have arrived to carry out a probe into the accident.