Distant relative claims Ajit Pawar spoke to him minutes before plane crash
Pune: A distant relative of late Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has claimed that the NCP chief had spoken to him over the phone just minutes before the aircraft he was travelling in crashed, killing him and four others. Playing what he claimed was an audio recording of the call, Shreejit Pawar, a distant nephew of Ajit Pawar, said on Tuesday that he had messaged the NCP leader seeking representation for the Mali community in the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections. Ajit Pawar and four other persons on board a chartered aircraft were killed when it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of a tabletop runway at Baramati airport in Pune district on January 28. “I had messaged him at 8.19 am while he was on board. As soon as the aircraft came into network range, he called me at 8.37 am, just a few minutes before the crash. I had sought representation for the Mali community in the ZP polls,” Sreejit Pawar said.
In the recording, Ajit Pawar purportedly said that he always tried to take all communities along. “The conversation reflects Ajit Pawar’s inclusive approach,” Shreejit Pawar told the media. During the conversation, Ajit Pawar is purportedly heard saying that he had appointed Digambar Durgade, who belongs to the Mali community, as chairman of the Pune District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. He is also heard saying that a ticket had already been given to a candidate from the Mali community from a ZP group in Baramati. In a statement issued on January 28, the Civil Aviation Ministry had said that at 8.18 am, the aircraft first established contact with Baramati air traffic control after being released by the Pune approach at 30 nautical miles (around 55 km) inbound to Baramati. Upon reaching the final approach for the runway, the crew reported that the runway was not in sight and initiated a go-around to reposition for a second attempt on the runway. It subsequently reported “runway in sight” and the ATC cleared the aircraft to land at 8.43 am. However, the crew did not provide the mandatory readback of this final clearance, and at 8.44 am, exactly one minute after the last communication, ATC personnel observed flames erupting near the threshold of the runway.
