NCP chief and Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash in Baramati. Top leaders including Union Minister Amit Shah, CM Devendra Fadnavis and Dy CM Eknath Shinde attended the last rites. Sanjay Raut demanded an investigation.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Nitin Nabin, along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday arrived at Vidya Pratishthan ground to attend the last rites of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. Nationalist Congress Party chief Ajit Pawar died a day earlier when the chartered aircraft they were travelling in crashed near the landing runway of the Baramati airport.
Shah, along with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Goa CM Pramod Sawant, paid last respects to the NCP chief. Pawar's sons, Parth and Jay also performed the last rites rituals of their father. Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar and Rajya Sabha MP paid last respects to her husband. The drone footage showed a large crowd at the Vidya Pratishthan ground, where Ajit Pawar's last rites were being performed.
Last rites of PSO held
Meanwhile, the last rites of Vidip Dilip Jadhav, the personal security officer (PSO) of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, were performed by his family in their native village in Satara on Wednesday night. His young son performed the last rites. Jadhav was on board the ill-fated charter plane that crash-landed in Baramati yesterday killing all five people on board.
Sanjay Raut demands probe
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut demanded a thorough and transparent investigation into the plane crash that claimed the life of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, saying mere condolences are not enough. Raising concerns over repeated charter flight accidents across the country, Raut questioned whether technical faults, radar failures, or airport-related issues were responsible and asserted that the truth must be revealed to the public to identify root causes and prevent such tragedies in the future.
"Such a major accident occurred in Ahmedabad. What happened? An investigation was launched, but has anything come to light? So many chartered flight accidents have occurred, and so many people have died... The truth should be revealed to us, to the public. A towering leader like Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was a popular leader. Yesterday, he died in a plane crash. Not only Maharashtra, but the entire country is in shock. How did this happen? What technical fault was there? This should come to light," he said, while addressing the media. (ANI)
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