By IANS
Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) : Two pilots of private airline company Deccan Aviation were arrested and their helicopter detained by the police after the chopper made an unscheduled landing close to the Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he was taking off after addressing an election rally in this Himachal Pradesh town.
The incident around 1.15 p.m. took the Special Protection Group (SPG), the elite security force that protects the prime minister, completely off guard along with the state police and administration as no flying is allowed as per the security drill of the prime minister at least 20 minutes after his helicopters leave.
The detained helicopter was engaged by the ruling Congress in the state for senior party leader and Himachal Pradesh in-charge R.K. Dhawan. The pilots brought the private helicopter to the same helipad where the prime minister’s copters were ready to leave. The private helicopter had come to pick up Dhawan to take him to Shimla.
Both pilots of the copter, Captain M.S. Sehgal and A. Mehta, were arrested immediately after they landed. Their chopper was also detained. The arrests were confirmed by director general of police Ashwini Kumar and Bilaspur district police chief Balbir Thakur.
“The pilots are being interrogated. Our investigations are in progress on how the private helicopter breached the security of the prime minister,” Thakur said after the incident.
The pilots had not given any advance information to the air traffic control (ATC) in Chandigarh or Shimla about their landing the chopper in Bilaspur. The prime minister had arrived in his IAF helicopter from Chandigarh where he had earlier reached by an aircraft.
Manmohan Singh was in Himachal to address two public rallies – at Bilaspur and Palampur – on the last day of campaigning in the state. 65 assembly seats are to go to polls in the hill state Dec 19.
As the helicopter was detained by the police, Dhawan left for Shimla by road.
“It is a clear violation of the Blue Book rule that governs the prime minister’s and VIP security. The chopper had dropped Amarinder Singh at Nalagarh and come to pick up Dhawan. The prime minister took off after five minutes,” said an official in Delhi.
The incident has come as a major embarrassment for the ruling Congress as the chopper in question was there to carry a senior Congress leader.