Six questioned in Anil Ambani chopper case

Six employees of Air Works Engineering India Pvt Ltd were on Monday questioned by the crime branch of the Mumbai Police over pebbles and mud being found in the oil tank of the gearbox of industrialist Anil Ambani's helicopter.

The police think a tiff between the maintenance firm's staff and management or a business rivalry could have led to the incident.

“We have written to the directorate general of civil aviation to seek their opinion,” joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said. “It will help us to decide whether to apply section 307 of the IPC (attempted murder) in the case. As of now, the case is registered under section 440 (mischief).”

A crime branch officer said the police are also consulting helicopter experts. “They will help us to ascertain what would have happened in case of a mishap and who could be the person with knowledge about the gear box,” the officer said. “We have seized a roster containing the names of those who could have visited the helicopter at the time of the incident.”

On April 23, some pebbles were found inside the oil tank of the 13-seater twin-engine Bell 412 chopper. The industrialist and nine Reliance Infocomm officials were scheduled to fly the next day from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai.

The maintenance firm has taken its 52 non-technical staff off duty till the probe is over.