YSR's copter crash: CBI visits Nallamala forests

A special Central Bureau of Investigation team on Saturday began investigation about the 'mysterious circumstances' surrounding the helicopter crash that killed former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others.

The Andhra Pradesh Government had requested the Centre that a probe by the CBI be ordered into the incident.

Deputy Inspector General V V Lakshmi Narayana led the 10-member team, including Central and state forensic experts, which visited first time the crash site in the dense Nallamala forests in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

Narayana accompanied by Superintendent of Police of CBI in Visakhapatnam Nageswara Rao, forensic expert and former director of AP Forensic Science Laboratory K P C Gandhi, meticulously inspected the crash site at Pavuralagutta hills.

"The officials of state CID, who probed the incident till Friday, handed over the case papers and briefed us about their investigation," Lakshmi Narayana told PTI over phone from the crash site.

"This is for the first time we have visited the crash site and we will take further investigation after meeting the officials concerned," he said.

The team members closely observed the copter parts and inspected the area around the wreckage, the DIG said, adding that if necessary the team would again visit site where the chopper carrying the chief minister and four others crashed on September 2.

The CBI's multi-disciplinary investigation team (MDIT) comprising officers from the Indian Air Force, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will also scrutinise the log details of the Air Traffic Control in Hyderabad and Chennai.

Meanwhile, Kurnool district superintendent of Police Ch Srikant said the wreckage of the ill-fated helicopter would be cleared after getting permission from the DGCA. Besides the CBI, two parallel investigations by a two-member expert committee constituted by the state government, comprising retired IPS officer and VIP Security expert M R Reddy and former DGCA H S Khola, and the DGCA would continue into the chopper crash.

The DGCA and the two-member expert committee have been asked to submit their reports in 60-days.