Helicopter sabotage attempt not their first

The two arrested Air Works employees had access to airport premises despite being involved in serious offences at the Kalina air maintenance hangar in the past

The two arrested Air Works employees had access to airport premises despite being involved in serious offences at the Kalina air maintenance hangar in the pastu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

The police have finally cracked the Anil Ambani chopper sabotage case. But the arrest of the two Air Works employees, the company that looked into the maintenance of Ambani's Bell 412 Uday Warekar and Palraj Thevar has opened a can of worms.

ARRESTED: Uday Warekar and Palraj Thevar,u00a0 employees of Air Works, were remanded to custody till May 15

The police claim the sabotage attempt was an outcome of a dispute between the Air Works workers' union and the management, which has been brewing since 1995. In fact, the duo, working as technical helpers, has been involved in five serious offences inside the Mumbai airport area in the past.

However, both the Airport Authority of India and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation failed to initiate any action against the suspects. According to the police, the duo posed a major threat to aircraft and flyers in the Kalina air maintenance hangar, where Air Works is located. "The duo were emboldened as no action was initiated against them in the past," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police (crime).

"The Crime Branch has booked Warekar and Thevar, under Section 3 (1C) of the Civil Aviation Act 1992. The accused can face life imprisonment if found guilty," said Maria.u00a0u00a0

Giving details of the offence, crime branch officials said that the duo did not know how to the fix the lid of the chopper's gearbox after they placed the pebbles on it. The arrow on the lid pointed in the wrong direction and this raised a suspicion in Bharat Borge's mind that someone had tampered with the gearbox.u00a0

Borge was the first to report to the police that the chopper had been sabotaged on April 23. A key witness in the case, Borge's body was found on the railway tracks near Vile Parle on April 28.u00a0 The Crime Branch is also investigating the involvement of the two suspects in Borge's death.

Warekar and Thevar, who were arrested before Sunday midnight, were presented before a metropolitan magistrate and remanded to custody till May 15.

Accused speak

Prior to their arrest, MiD DAY spoke to the two accused:

Uday Varekar: "On the day of incident, Bharat Borge, Thevar,u00a0 an engineer Rajaram Chauhan and I were working on Anil Ambani's helicopter and were the last ones to leave.u00a0 At the shift's end, at 5 pm, we were asked to gather in the office where the police checked our hands for traces of mud.

Later, we were taken to the Airport police station where Crime Branch officials questioned us till late in the night. Since then, we have been called for questioning several times. We haven't committed any crime."u00a0u00a0

Palraj Thevar: "Uday and I were questioned twice, as we were the suspected accused.
The police told us that either we had committed the crime or had seen the person doing it, but we said that we had no idea about the same."

Air Works history sheet

August 27, 2008: Brick hurled at aircraft
October 27, 2008: Improvised bomb triggered off inside the hangar
January 3, 2009: Explosion inside the main electrical supply room. Security personnel discovered cracker bombs, which were set to blow off and a can of petrol to set off a fire
March 6, 2009: Explosion inside the cupboard containing stationary and cushion covers in the office. A similar explosion followed by a minor fire, and cracker bombs and a can of petrol were found in an aircraft
April 23, 2009: Tampering with Bell 412 helicopter owned by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

The cases are being investigated by the Santacruz Airport police