Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh on Monday recommended that the central government order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the helicopter crash that killed late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others.
State Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy told reporters on Monday that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has agreed to the state's request.
Sabita Indra Reddy said the state government has sent a letter to the central government recommending a CBI probe.
"Chief Minister K. Rosaiah also spoke to Mr. Chidambaram over phone in this regard and the union home minister agreed to the request," she said.
"There are several doubts in the minds of the eight crore people of this state about the crash. The government decided to go for a thorough inquiry and place all the facts before the people," she said.
The state government has also ordered a probe by a two-member expert committee comprising M R Reddy, retired Indian Police Service (IPS) official and expert on VIP security, and H.S. Kola, former director general, civil aviation, she said.
"The expert committee will probe the incident from all angles. It will go into the causes of the crash and also what happened after the incident."
The committee has been asked to submit a report in two days. The government will extend all possible help to the committee.
"If the committee requires officials for its job, we will provide them," the home minister said.
The decision to recommend a CBI probe and form a two-member expert committee was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Rosaiah. The meeting was attended by the state home minister, agriculture minister Raghuveera Reddy, and director general of police S S P Yadav besides other top officials.
The state government had already ordered a probe by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) while the central government appointed a panel of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to conduct an inquiry.
"All these inquiries are to ensure a probe from all angles and to clear even a minor doubt. There are several doubts like he (YSR) should not have flown in bad weather, whether the helicopter had no objection certificate and whether it was checked properly by the concerned officials," she said.
YSR, his special secretary, chief security officer and two pilots were killed on Wednesday when a Bell 430 helicopter carrying them from Hyderabad to Chittoor district crashed in the dense Nallamalla forest in Kurnool district. The charred bodies of all the five and chopper's wreckage were found the next day after one of the biggest search operations by Indian Air Force.
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