04 May,2009 11:08 AM IST | | J Dey
As investigations in the Anil Ambani chopper sabotage case continue, the Crime Branch has detained three employees of Air Works, the company that looked into the maintenance of Ambani's Bell 412, yesterday.u00a0u00a0
The trio identified as Vinay Patankar, Uday Warekar and Palraj Thewar - all junior employees of the aircraft repair company - were being interrogated by the police last night.
According to sources, the three are directly involved in the 'sabotage' attempt and one of them could have placed pebbles and gravel in Ambani's chopper on April 23, the evening before the industrialist was scheduled to fly in it. The police narrowed down on the three suspects after having questioned dozens of Air Works employees over the past 15 days.u00a0
While the police first suspected that some business rivals were behind the attempt to sabotage the chopper, they are now sure of an inside hand being involved. "We are very close to cracking the case," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police (crime), wishing not to comment further.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Government Railway Police gave a clean chit to three officials working with the Anil Dhirubahi Ambani Group in the Bharat Borge death case. Borge, a key witness in the chopper case, was found dead on rail tracks near Vile Parle on April 28.
