Ambani chopper sabotage: 2 accused acquitted

A Mumbai court on Tuesday acquitted two persons -- Uday Wanekar and Balraj Thewar -- accused of sabotaging Anil Ambani's helicopter in April last year, due to lack of evidence.

The two had been arrested in May 2009 in connection with the sabotage of ADAG chairman Anil Ambani's helicopter.

Wanekar and Thewar, employees of Air Works India Engineering Pvt Ltd that maintained Ambani's helicopter, were technical helpers at Air Works.

The Mumbai police had then emphasised that there was no corporate rivalry in the case of sabotage of Ambani's helicopter.

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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.

Fourteen former and over 20 current Air Works employees had been questioned in this regard.

The GRP had also recorded the statements of some employees from Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group but had given them a clean chit.

The Anil Ambani helicopter 'sabotage' case had taken a mysterious turn in April 2009 when a key witness, Bharat Borge, was found dead on the railway tracks.

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Railway Police sources had said Borge was suspected to have been run over by a Churchgate-bound fast local train near Vile Parle.

Borge's mysterious death had created a flutter, lending credence to Anil Ambani's charge that certain 'rival business groups were trying to eliminate him'.

The Anil Ambani Group had alleged that business rivals may be behind an 'attempt to murder' the industrialist by trying to sabotage his helicopter.

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.

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According to Railway Police sources, a letter recovered from Borge's person said some 'Reliance' people came to see him and questioned him but he did not say anything and that he also felt they will do something to him. It was not clear to which Reliance group was he referring to.

Borge was among the first persons to have spotted the fuel cap of Ambani's Bell-412 helicopter open on Thursday last and on inspection found pebbles and gravel inside, one day before he was scheduled to go to neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

Family members of Borge had sought a CBI enquiry into his death.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group thereafter cancelled the maintenance contract of its three choppers with aviation services provider Airworks Engineering India following the alleged sabotage of one of Ambani's helicopters.