Ambani chopper sabotage: 2 arrested

Two persons have been arrested in connection with the sabotage of ADAG chairman Anil Ambani's helicopter.

Uday Warikar and Balraj Phevar, employees of Air Works India Engineering Pvt Ltd that maintained Ambani's helicopter, were arrested on Monday and sent to police custody till May 15. The two were technical helpers at Air Works.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai police have said that there is no corporate rivalry in the case of sabotage of Ambani's helicopter. Preliminary investigations suggest that it was a case of union rivalry and not business rivalry.

Earlier, former Air Works employees were questioned by police in connection with pebbles found in the helicopter of industrialist Anil Ambani and a police team was sent to meet the family of technician Bharat Borge whose body was found from a railway track.

Text: PTI

"We have been questioning former Air Works employees in connection with the pebbles found in the fuel tank of the helicopter," a senior Crime Branch official said.

Six former employees had been questioned on Saturday and eight on Sunday, the official said, refusing to comment on the results of the interrogations.

Police are probing the possibility that former employees could have been involved in instigating an employee into putting the pebbles into the fuel tank of the helicopter.

Crime Branch officials have recorded the statements of close to 60 persons so far, the official said.

Police are also awaiting the results of the forensic tests.

A senior Government Railway Police official said a team had been sent to Satara to question deceased technician Borge's family. Borge, who was working with Air Works, had first spotted the pebbles in the tank.

He was later found dead on railway tracks near suburban Vile Parle station on April 28.

"A team has been sent to speak to his family members like his wife and others to see what he had told them prior to his death," GRP ACP P Sawant told PTI.

The GRP had earlier recorded the statement of Borge's brother in connection with the death.

About 20 employees of Air Works were called in for questioning yesterday as GRP officials continued to probe if there had been any abettment to Borge's death.

"We questioned the employees regarding Borge's behaviour prior to his death," Sawant said.

"While some said he was under some tension prior to his death they felt it could have been due to the stress of the incident and the ongoing probe," he said.

Police said the call records of Borge's phone had also not provided any conclusive evidence.

The GRP had also recorded the statements of some employees from Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group but had given them a clean chit after no evidence was found of them having abetted Borge's death.

The forensic report of the viscera from Borge's body has yet not been received, officials said.