Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Tuesday made fresh allegations against VSR Ventures, the company that owned the Learjet 45 aircraft that crashed while landing in Baramati on January 28, killing Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and four others.
Rohit Pawar, who is Ajit Pawar’s nephew, alleged that VSR Ventures does not have the aircraft’s complete flight records. He also claimed that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had summoned Rohit Singh, a director of VSR Ventures, for questioning on Monday, but only as a pilot. The MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed alleged that the regulatory body was working hand in glove with VSR Ventures.
Pawar has launched a loud, sustained, and combative public campaign demanding an independent investigation into the air crash, which he has claimed was a “planned conspiracy” and an act of sabotage. In a series of press conferences over the past month, he presented several technical and political claims to support his suspicions.
The latest allegation came via a post on X on Tuesday. “It is shocking to learn that out of the aircraft’s 5,000 flight hours, VSR has records available for only 1,800 to 2,000 hours, while the remaining 3,000 hours of records are completely missing. Is the investigation being deliberately delayed to allow VSR to manipulate or fabricate these missing records?” he wrote.
The NCP (SP) MLA, however, did not specify whether the 3,000 missing flight hours included the data from the fatal January 28 journey, when the aircraft was travelling from Mumbai to Baramati.
Flight hours refer to the total cumulative time an aircraft spends airborne, measured from the moment its wheels lift off during takeoff until they touch down while landing. This metric is essential for planning maintenance schedules, monitoring structural fatigue, and assessing the aircraft’s overall utilisation and service life.
Pawar further stated that Rohit Singh, who co-owns VSR Ventures along with his father Vijay Kumar Singh, was summoned by the DGCA for questioning on Monday, but only as a pilot. He questioned why Maharashtra’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the criminal angle of the crash, was not informed of Singh’s return to the country from the US.
“When Maharashtra’s prominent leader had passed away in the crash, what does it mean that the owner of the company responsible for the accident is being summoned only as a pilot for questioning? While the CID is investigating the criminal angle of Dada’s crash, if VSR’s owner has come to India, didn’t DGCA deem it necessary to inform the CID?” Pawar said.
He also alleged a lack of coordination between investigating agencies, and claimed that DGCA and VSR Ventures were acting hand in glove, urging the central and state governments “to show some seriousness”.
Vijay Kumar Singh did not respond to calls and texts from HT.
Meanwhile, NCP working president Praful Patel on Tuesday said the black box recovered from the crashed Learjet 45 aircraft has been sent to the United States for data retrieval. He expressed hope that the truth behind the crash will emerge following a CBI investigation.
“On behalf of the NCP, we have already demanded a probe by the CBI. We are sure that the truth will soon come out before the people as the black box has also been sent to the United States for decoding,” Patel said.
His remarks come amid growing demands for a transparent probe following a series of allegations by Rohit Pawar regarding the plane crash circumstances and suspected foul play. The NCP demanded a CBI inquiry into the crash on February 17, after which the Maharashtra government wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah with the request.
The crash is currently being investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), while the state CID is also conducting a parallel inquiry. On Tuesday, AAIB said it is conducting a “detailed” investigation and has sought “special support” to retrieve data from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), a key component of the black box, which is expected to shed light on the sequence of events leading to the crash.