Marathi people won’t sit quiet if air crash probe turn out to be a sham: Rohit Pawar

The late Ajit Pawar’s nephew and Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit Pawar warned here on Monday that the Marathi people “will show what they are capable of” if the investigation led by central government agencies into the January 28 air crash proves to be an eyewash.

Speaking to media persons here outside the Maharashtra state assembly premises here on Monday, Rohit Pawar said, “Are the investigation agencies collecting all evidence properly? There should be a thorough investigation into Ajit Dada’s accident. What kind of investigation is the investigating agency conducting? What action will be taken against VSR Ventures? They have violated many rules. I have written to the Chief Minister regarding this and in this letter I have demanded that this accident be thoroughly investigated and a report should come out as soon as possible”.

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“We have received the photograph of the black box. We also have evidence of exactly how much of the black box was burnt in the air crash. Information about (Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s Chief Flight Operations Inspector Captain) Shweta Singh has also come to light. There should also be an investigation into how Shweta Singh has been committing corruption. The Marathi people will show what they are capable of if the investigation is not done thoroughly or if it is a sham,” Rohit Pawar said.

Significantly, Rohit Pawar had alleged earlier that Shweta Singh has been “running a huge racket inside DGCA” and demanded that she must not be allowed to continue with the regulator while the investigation into Ajit Pawar’s accident is underway.

“The DGCA was unaware of the flight plans of Ajit Pawar and his flight plans were changed. Now, VSR is trying to align all their paperwork to tally with their lies. Where is the digital evidence? Where their papers were signed under CCTV,” Rohit Pawar said.

“We have prepared a letter to give to the Chief Minister. We will give the letter and evidence by taking the Chief Minister’s time. It is not possible that all the issues will be resolved under the CM. We have sent the report to Amit Shah. We have also sent the report to the DGCA. Earlier we were going to give the report to the CM and now we are saying the same, we will give the report. We have withheld 70% of the information we have. We do not want to do politics,”
Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit Pawar said.

“Ajit Pawar-led NCP leaders like Amol Mitkari and Rupali Thombre-Patil as well as several other political activists are talking about what is going on. We want a transparent investigation. There will be a CBI investigation, but the CBI already has too many cases to investigate. What investigation have they done until last month? Did they take possession of CCTV cameras? Did they do what has to be done in a criminal investigation? It is important to conduct a thorough investigation. Instead, two hastily prepared reports have been given so far,” Rohit Pawar said.

“What was the relationship between the people in power and VSR Ventures? We have evidence about which are the ministers with links to VSR Ventures. It is a good thing if there will be a CBI investigation, but so far the investigation results of thousands of cases have not been submitted. There are too many cases which have been put on ice. So there is a need to prescribe a time limit while giving cases to the CBI,” Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit Pawar said.

Meanwhile, the village of Dorlewadi in Baramati taluka where the air crash took place, observed a shutdown (“bandh”) on Monday demanding that the Maharashtra state government conduct a thorough investigation into the incident to bring out the truth.

According to sources, there is an atmosphere of gloom, anger, confusion and demoralisation regarding the air crash of late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar in Dorlewadi village.

Similarly, a shutdown was also observed in Loni Bhapkar village in Baramati taluka on Sunday, to demand an investigation into Ajit Pawar’s air crash. The Loni Bhapkar village gram panchayat has written a letter to the local police inspector demanding a thorough investigation into the air crash, sources said.

NCP workers gathered outside the administrative headquarters in Baramati taluka to demand a thorough investigation into the air crash which killed the late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.