The mortal remains of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar, were consigned to flames on Thursday in his hometown of Baramati, Pune district.
The funeral for Pawar, who was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday, was held with full state honours.
Also in attendance for his last rites were union ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari; former union minister, Sharad Pawar; BJP president, Nitin Nabin; and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde.
Thousands of people gathered for Pawar’s last rites, chanting “Ajit Dada amar rahe”, when his mortal remains, draped in the national flag, were brought from his village Katewadi to the Vidya Pratishthan ground.
Pawar’s wife Sunetra, who is a Rajya Sabha member, and sons Parth and Jay, as well as Pawar’s cousin, Supriya Sule, Lok Sabha member from Baramati, were seen bidding him a tearful adieu. Parth and Jay lit their father’s funeral pyre.
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Shah, Gadkari, Nabin, Fadnavis, union minister Ramdas Athawale, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Eknath Shinde, former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh were among the leaders who placed floral wreaths on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader’s mortal remains.
Early Thursday morning, Pawar’s mortal remains had been brought from the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Hospital in Baramati, where they were kept overnight, to his village.
The Deputy CM was died along with four others on board the charter plane that was flying them from Mumbai to Baramati when it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of the tabletop airstrip.
The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak with 1,500 hours of flying, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
Their mortal remains have been handed over to their families, hospital sources said.
Police have registered an accidental death report (ADR) case in connection with the plane crash, an official said, while forensic teams retrieved both the black box and voice data recorder.
The government Wednesday released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Pawar’s death, saying the aircraft was cleared for landing after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance, it did not give any read-back to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames near the edge of the airstrip.
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