No trace of missing chopper, search continues

Raipur, July 17 (UNI) Search operations started afresh today to trace the Chhattisgarh government helicopter, which went missing three days ago, as the information about its wreckage being located last night in the forest of Tarregaon in Kawardha district turned out to be false, official sources said.

On the basis of an information provided by an employee of the Forest department last evening, top civil and police officials had indicated that the wreckage had been located and all four crew members on board were feared deas.

Captain AS Siddu, pilot Vikram Savekar, engineer Amitabh Soni, and senior technician Manish Badonia were on board the state helicopter 'Maina'', which went missing on Saturday afternoon while on its way back from Bhopal.

However, the search parties, which combed the forest of Tarregaon, bordering Madhya Pradesh, could not find any trace of helicopter and they had returned to the base camp after midnight, the sources said.

Inspector General of Police (Raipur range) Y K S Thakur told UNI on telephone that forest guard R D Mahananda, who claimed to have located the wreckage of the government helicopter 'Maina' in the forest, appeared to be not in good mental health.

As the search operation turned futile, the police later found that the forest guard did not go to the forests yesterday but went to some other place, about 25 Km from his house, and on returning he fabricated a story about spotting the wreckage and informed Divisional Forest Officer Chandrashekhar Tiwari and Kawardha Additional Collector R R Thakur.

Police sources said they were verifying the credentials of forest guard R D Mahananda and had already questioned his wife to ascertain what prompted a government employee to fabricate such a story.

Meanwhile, state Aviation Director Anil Tuteja said two IAF helicopters and a chopper of the Madhya Pradesh government have renewed search in the forests of Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh and bordering areas of Chhattisgarh. He said mobile phone records of the crew members indicated that one of them had talked to his family members from Lanji area, he added.

The state government had already sought the help of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to locate the helicopter through remote sensing technique and Army assistance to carryout search operations at the ground level in the dense forests of Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh.

UNI