Mumbai, April 20 (IANS). Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party MLA Rohit Pawar has questioned the arrest made by the CBI in the Ajit Pawar plane crash case. Rohit Pawar claimed on Monday that the arrest of the Deputy Director of the Airworthiness Department of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and registration of FIR by the CBI has exposed the presence of many corrupt officials. The person arrested is just a ‘small fish’, there are much bigger ‘fishes’ present in this organization.
Rohit Pawar said in
Rohit Pawar further said, “If the work in DGCA is being done by paying bribes, then one can easily imagine how VK Singh, who is adept at giving bribes and playing the role of a middleman, would have ‘cleaned’ (erased evidence of) the documents related to Dada’s accident. On one hand, two months have passed since the request was made to hand over the investigation of Dada’s accident to CBI, but CBI has still not taken any action in this case. On the other hand, CBI is taking action on this matter, which may be an indirect message or warning to the TDP government. This is why TDP has strictly followed the orders of the central government on the issue of delimitation.
Rohit Pawar has been at the forefront in raising concerns about the systemic corruption within the DGCA and the safety standards of the private charter aircraft involved in the matter. He has clearly said that he suspects that some conspiracy may be involved in this plane crash. His allegations center on a “disturbing web” of corruption between charter operator VSR Ventures and DGCA officials.
The MLA reiterated his allegation that the pilot’s flying hours information was manipulated to meet regulatory requirements. He also claimed that to avoid disclosure of security lapses, the cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) were deliberately tampered with or secretly paid to turn them off.
Rohit Pawar has raised the question as to how the Learjet 45 aircraft was given permission to fly when even before this there were reports of technical faults in it and there were also allegations of financial irregularities in the management of the company operating the aircraft. He met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Civil Aviation Minister K. Have written a letter to Rammohan Naidu demanding a detailed and transparent investigation into this matter.
–IANS
OP/PM
