The “big leader from East Vidarbha”, who was purported to be the cause of the late deputy CM Ajit Pawar delaying his originally scheduled plan to travel from Mumbai to Pune by car is none other than senior NCP (Ajit Pawar) leader Praful Patel, party’s Maharashtra state vice-president Pramod Hindurao told media persons on Thursday.
Hindurao’s statement was also confirmed by Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit Pawar who shared more details about it later, by making allegations about Delhi-based aircraft charter company VSR and a political consultant Naresh Arora known to be close to Praful Patel, who allegedly arranged for the ill-fated aircraft.
Incidentally, both Pramod Hindurao and Praful Patel are leaders of Ajit Pawar’s party. As claimed by Hindurao, senior Patel happens to be the “big leader from East Vidarbha” who met the late leader leading to a delay in his travel plan. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha from the Bhandara-Gondiya constituency which falls in the East Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, where he is known to wield considerable political influence.
According to Hindurao, “The day before the air crash (January 27), Ajit Pawar had prepared to travel from Mumbai to Pune by road. Accordingly, all the bags were put in his car. That was when he received a call from Praful Patel who said that he had some work to be completed for which he needed a certain file, which he needed to sign . That file was at the ministry. So, Ajit Dada called up the secretary and asked him to bring the file with him to his residence for signing. There was a delay in the file reaching Ajit Pawar’s residence. So. he told the driver to take his bags out of the car, adding that he would leave tomorrow (January 28) morning by chartered flight at 7.30 am or 8 am. Then the driver took all the bags out of the car”.
Pramod Hindurao’s claim came exactly a day after the deceased leader’s nephew and Sharad Pawar faction’s MLA Rohit Pawar revealed on Wednesday that “a big leader from East Vidarbha” met the late Ajit Pawar on the day (January 27) after he had already made preparations to travel from Mumbai to Pune by car. “The day before the accident, Ajit Pawar had planned to go by car on January 27. Ajit Pawar had said he would meet some party leaders and workers in the evening. After this meeting, Dada was scheduled to leave for Pune on January 27 in the evening by car. His convoy was also ready, but a big leader from East Vidarbha came to meet Ajit Dada. However, he was late and the discussion continued till late evening, due to which Ajit Dada could not go to Pune by car and decided to go by aircraft the next day. Therefore, Dada, who was supposed to travel by car, decided to go by aircraft the next morning. It is necessary to check if there was any planning behind this,” Rohit Pawar said on Wednesday.
Significantly, Rohit Pawar had also said, “There are only two companies in India involved in aircraft maintenance. One of them is owned by Praful Patel. But it was VSR which looked after the maintenance of the aircraft (which flew the late Ajit Pawar)”.
According to sources, the other aircraft maintenance company mentioned by Rohit Pawar, is actually Prime Aero Services LLP, which is owned by Praful Patel’s son, Prajay Patel. Recently, Prime Aero Services LLP had formed a joint venture with Adani Defence & Aerospace to acquire AAR Indamer Technics Private Limited, which operates an MRO facility in Mihan SEZ, Nagpur.
Rohit Pawar confirmed on Thursday that Hindurao’s statement is right when media persons asked him about claims that Ajit Pawar’s originally scheduled plan to travel by car had to be cancelled because of senior party leaders Sunil Tatkare and Praful Patel.
“I never made any allegations against anybody. I am of the opinion that it is important for an investigation to be conducted, but the investigation is not being conducted properly. Pramod Hindurao himself has said that the leader was Praful Patel. There is no need for me to identify him by name. His own people (Ajit Pawar-led NCP leaders) are taking his name. So far, all that investigators have said is that nothing was found in the black box because it was damaged. They should not give frivolous reasons like cockpit voice recording was switched off. Should we accept such explanations? The VSR air charter company seems to have deactivated the aircraft’s black box. Tomorrow, if it gets revealed that the aircraft black box was dysfunctional, then my statement that it was a deliberate act will get proved,” he said.
“What was revealed by Pramodrao Hindurao proves that I was right. On January 27, Sunil Tatkare himself said that he was present with Ajit Pawar and stayed till late. Hindurao said he received a call from Praful Patel due to which Ajit Dada’s travel plans got changed. It is also true that there was a dispute about a political consultancy. It is this political consultant (Naresh Arora) who arranged for the aircraft. Ajit Dada had plans to cancel that person’s (Naresh Arora) contract worth hundreds of crores of rupees. Maybe that’s why there was a dispute. (Senior Ajit Pawar-led NCP leader) Sunil Tatkare was there at that time. That’s why Ajit Dada got late. It is because of that delay, Ajit Dada had to fly by aircraft instead of going by car as scheduled,” Rohit Pawar said.
“Ajit Dada had instructed to keep the contract with Naresh Arora’s political consultancy only to conduct surveys. Dada said that he never runs his party depending on any political consultancy. Even when we were with Ajit Dada in Baramati, he had given a dressing down to employees of Naresh Arora’s consultancy in his own style. On January 27, certain leaders (of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP) were of the view that Naresh Arora’s contract worth hundreds of crores for political consultancy should be continued and he should be paid a huge amount. The same view prevailed at the January 27 meeting as well, but Ajit Dada was against it and he wanted to cancel the contract of the consultant,” he added.