‘Accident or murder?’: Ajit Pawar’s son Rohit Pawar questions 20-day delay plane crash probe | India News

New Delhi: Ajit Pawar’s son O Nationalist Congress Party SP MLA Rohit Pawar on Tuesday questioned the pace of the probe into the plane crash that killed former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, asking whether the 20-day delay was accidental or deliberate.20 days after the crash, Karjat Jamkhed MLA complained that the investigation had failed to gain momentum and raised concerns about transparency.In a post on X, Rohit Pawar wrote, “Common citizens understand the value of Ajit Dada but the investigating agencies still don’t seem to understand it. 20 days have passed since the unfortunate accident and still there is no progress in the investigation. Is the delay just to allow the VSR company to destroy evidence or does the company have protection? Such questions have arisen in the minds of ordinary citizens. With the information coming out today about the black box being damaged, it looks like the possibility I predicted five days ago is about to come true. In any case, we will not rest until we know whether it was an accident or murder in Dada’s case!”He also said that he will hold a press conference in the next two days.Along with the post, Rohit Pawar claimed that the aircraft’s black box was damaged. However, there was no official response from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or the Air Accidents Investigation Bureau on the claim.Aviation experts told ANI that the black boxes are designed to withstand extreme conditions like high temperatures, heavy impacts and water immersion to ensure that stored data is not lost in case of a crash.According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, a three-member team from the AAIB in Delhi and another three-member team from the DGCA Mumbai regional office reached the crash site on January 28. Director General of AAIB, GVG Jugandhar also visited the site on the same day.The ministry said the investigation was progressing swiftly and confirmed that the black box of the ill-fated plane had been recovered. It added that investigation has been initiated as per Rule 5 and 11 of AAIB Rules, 2025.Almost three weeks after the crash, there has been no public update from the DGCA or the AAIB and no preliminary report has been released so far. Rohit Pawar said that a preliminary report is expected by now as the investigation continues.