Mumbai, March 4 NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar alleged on Wednesday that someone was trying to protect VSR Ventures in connection with the plane crash that killed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, and claimed that the preliminary investigation by the AAIB vindicated the doubts he had previously raised.
He also accused VSR of several serious lapses in the past.
The Learjet 45 aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures, crashed near the Baramati airstrip in Pune district on January 28, killing Pawar and four others.
In its 22-page preliminary report on the VSR Ventures' Learjet plane crash, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said that the visibility at the time of the crash was below the required level. It also raised concerns about faded markings on the runway and the presence of loose gravel on the runway surface.
Pawar said, "I am not against VSR or the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Ajitdada was travelling in a VSR aircraft. Unless we thoroughly investigate every aspect, we will not know the truth. But someone is trying to protect this company. The doubts we raised have been proven correct in the investigation report."
He also claimed that the AAIB report contained discrepancies, including mentioning Baramati as a district, and questioned how seriously the investigation had been conducted.
Pawar, who has been holding regular press conferences to raise issues concerning the Baramati plane crash, also disputed the report's conclusion that the aircraft hit trees before crashing.
"The report says the aircraft hit trees and then crashed. But there are no trees at that location. There is only a small bush that the aircraft did not even touch. What is stated in the report about hitting trees is incorrect," he said.
Pawar further alleged that VSR Ventures had displayed irresponsibility on multiple occasions, citing an incident involving the then Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's visit to Davos on January 20, 2023.
He claimed that the aircraft carrying Shinde had entered Iranian and Iraqi airspace without overflight permission, after which fighter jets from the two countries allegedly warned of action, forcing a change in route from Bahrain to Zurich.
"There have been several such serious lapses by VSR," he said.
Pawar demanded to know from where VSR Ventures derived its "audacity", and sought details about its investors and officials, though he added that he was not personally concerned with who they were.
Drawing a comparison, he said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had taken over the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death within two days, whereas a month had passed since the Baramati crash without a similar action.
He claimed that VSR Ventures had two directors and three shareholders, and that there were eight common names across two related companies.
He further alleged that the owner of VSR was related to the Union Civil Aviation Minister and questioned why the company, though registered in Delhi, had made high-value investments in Jubilee Hills (an upscale area in Hyderabad) at rates allegedly Rs 17 crore above the market price.
The MLA representing the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly constituency in Ahilyanagar district also raised concerns about the legal and institutional framework of the AAIB under the 2017 rules, claiming it was neither a statutory nor an autonomous body and remained answerable to the secretary and the minister, besides being attached to the DGCA.
"There is no independent investigative agency," he alleged.
