Baramati mourns as Ajit Pawar cremated with full state honours; Amit Shah, Nabin attend funeral

Grief swept through Baramati in Pune district on Thursday as Maharashtra bid farewell to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who lost his life in a tragic plane crash, with his last rites performed with full state honours.

At the packed Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati, Pawar’s sons Parth and Jay lit the funeral pyre as his wife Sunetra, who is a Rajya Sabha member, struggled to hold back tears, while the air resonated with chants of “Ajit Dada amar rahe".

Union ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Murlidhar Mohol, former Union minister Sharad Pawar, who is Ajit Pawar's uncle, and BJP president Nitin Nabin attended the 66-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief’s funeral. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde were also present at the Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati, the Pawar family's hometown, located 100 km from Pune.

Thousands of mourners gathered for Ajit Pawar's last rites chanted "Ajit Dada amar rahe", when his mortal remains, draped in the national flag, were brought from his village Katewadi to the Vidya Pratishthan ground.

His cousin Supriya Sule, the NCP (SP) Lok Sabha member from Baramati, stood with Sunetra Pawar to console her as she paid tributes to her late husband.

NCP working president and former Union minister Praful Patel was also present. Announcements over loudspeakers urged people to maintain silence and discipline, and to pay their respects to the late leader from their seats, calling it the greatest tribute to Ajit Pawar, known for his strict sense of discipline.

As the funeral pyre was lit, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar sat in silence. His younger brother Prataprao Pawar was also present.

Earlier, Shah, Gadkari, Nabin, Fadnavis, Union minister Ramdas Athawale, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Eknath Shinde, former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar and Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh were among the leaders who placed floral wreaths on Pawar's mortal remains.

Ajit Pawar's younger brother Shriniwas Pawar, sisters and other family members, including cousin Abhijit Pawar, also paid tributes to their late brother. Former CMs Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan, state Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal, party leader Manikrao Thakare and actor Riteish Deshmukh also paid homage.

Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) head and former CM Uddhav Thackeray and MNS chief Raj Thackeray offered floral tributes at Ajit Pawar's residence in Katewadi.

On Thursday morning, the mortal remains of Ajit Pawar were taken from the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Hospital in Baramati, where they were kept overnight, to his village. Pawar and four other persons on board the aircraft were killed after it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of the tabletop airstrip.

The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt Shambhavi Pathak, with 1,500 hours of flying experience, Personal Security Officer Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali. Their mortal remains have been handed over to their families.

Police have registered an accidental death report (ADR) case in connection with the plane crash, an official said.

The government on Wednesday released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Ajit Pawar's death. The aircraft was cleared for landing after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance, it did not give any read-back to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames near the edge of the airstrip.

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday said the "black box" (comprising the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder) of the Learjet aircraft has been recovered.