Ajit Pawar Plane Crash: Rohit Pawar Demands Aviation Minister's Removal, Supports Calls For CBI Probe
Rohit Pawar said no preliminary probe report has been submitted yet and alleged that efforts are being made to save VSR company.
Published : February 18, 2026 at 2:10 PM IST
Mumbai: Amid ongoing investigations into Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's plane crash, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Wednesday demanded removal of Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu from his post till the probe is completed.
He also claimed that the VSR company, whose Learjet plane carrying the NCP leader crashed in Pune's Baramati town on January 28, was being protected.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, the legislator, who is the nephew of the late NCP leader, said that the Civil Aviation Minister and his Telugu Desam Party are close to the VSR company owners.
"Some former ministers from Maharashtra and top TDP ministers from Andhra Pradesh attended the marriage of Rohit Singh, son of the VSR owner VK Singh. The company is allowed to operate and top politicians are still using the Learjet planes of the company," he claimed.
The MLA stressed that Naidu should not continue as Civil Aviation Minister on moral grounds. "There is not even a preliminary probe report till now, and there is reason to believe that efforts are being made to save the VSR company," he added.
Demands Of CBI Probe
Pawar said it was good that the NCP leadership, including his aunt and Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded a CBI probe into the January 28 air crash that killed Ajit Pawar.
Sunetra Pawar, accompanied by senior NCP leaders Sunil Tatkare, Praful Patel, Hassan Mushrif, and elder son Parth Pawar, met Fadnavis on Tuesday and handed over a letter seeking a CBI probe. "Many issues that I raised have been included in the letter," Rohit Pawar said.
According to the MLA, the probe needs to be impartial and the report should be submitted to a committee comprising aviation experts and political leaders.
Last month, Ajit Pawar and four others were killed in a plane crash at Baramati in Pune district. With investigations underway into the crash, the aircraft accident probe agency, AAIB, on Tuesday said that special support has been sought for the retrieval of data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 plane involved in the fatal crash.
Rohit Pawar Questions Political Angle
Rohit Pawar said his family has expressed concern for his safety since he has taken on the "high and mighty". "I wonder why BJP trolls were criticising me for demanding justice for my uncle. One troll with a verified handle had posted about a political earthquake in the state two days before the plane crash," he claimed.
He said if there was a political angle to the accident, there were two possibilities: one, speculation that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) might join the NDA after merging with the NCP; and two, that Ajit Pawar could quit the NDA following the merger. Some groups were unhappy with either scenario, he added.
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