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A wristwatch, a constant companion of Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who was a stickler for punctuality, served as the sombre proof to identify him at the plane crash site in Pune district, eyewitnesses claimed.
Wreckage of the crashed Learjet, which was engulfed in flames, lay strewn when villagers rushed to the spot, barely 200 metres from the edge of a tabletop runway at Baramati airport. They claimed Pawar was identified by his wristwatch.
A viral video shows a person pointing at the wristwatch of a charred body, claiming the deceased person is Ajit Pawar.
Notably, the clock is the poll symbol of the Nationalist Congress Party, led by the late Ajit Pawar.
The 16-year-old aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, crashed while attempting a second landing approach at the airport, an uncontrolled airfield where traffic information is typically provided by instructors and pilots from local flying training organisations.
How did it happen, a composed Sharad Pawar asked after landing in Baramati, hours after the tragic death of his nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in an aircraft crash on Wednesday.
The 85-year-old Pawar senior and his wife Pratibha Pawar flew to their hometown in a helicopter from Mumbai after hearing the news. “How did it happen?” he was heard asking those who had come to receive them.
Later he left for the hospital where Ajit Pawar’s body has been kept.
Ajit, who rose in Maharashtra politics under the aegis of Sharad Pawar, broke away from his uncle to join hands with the BJP in 2023. It led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party. But the two NCP factions recently came together to contest the municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad
