Copter wreckage, bodies found

Balaghat, MP, July 18 (UNI) The bodies of four crew members of a Chhattisgarh Government helicopter, which went missing after it took off from Bhopal for Raipur on July 14, were found today along with the wreckage of the chopper in a remote forest area near Lanji in naxal-affected Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

The body parts of the crew members -- Captain A S Siddu, pilot Vikram Savekar, technician Manish Badonia and aviation engineer Amitabh Soni -- were strewn on a hillock, 17 km from Keratola village along the Tanda river, which forms the border of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Though the IAF helicopters were deployed in the search operations, a pet dog had alerted a villager about the wreckage and bodies, police said.

As the area was inaccessible, bodies would have to be brought out on foot. A team of doctors had been sent to the spot. Probably, post-mortem of bodies could be carried out on the spot, Balaghat range Inspector General of Police Anvesh Mangalam said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Balaghat range) G Janardan told UNI over phone that the wreckage was found at around 1025 hours in the dense bamboo forest area on the hillock near Tanda river on the border of Balaghat(MP) and Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district.

A 130-member team, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (Parasvada area, Balaghat) Shivkumar Verma and Superintendent of Police (Rajnandgaon) Amit Singh, has reached the spot with the help of forest dwellers.

Equipped with mobile phones, spades, weapons and satellite phones, the team included personnel of the CRPF's 'Hawk Force', which carried out patrolling in the area, forest officials and some other people.

Meanwhile, a UNI report from Rajnandgaon said the CRPF personnel had cordoned off the accident site as naxalite outfifts are active in the forest region.

Official sources said authorities were exploring the possibility of constructing a temporary helipad to enable the army helicopters to land for airlifting the bodies of the crew of government helicopter 'Maina'.

Though the information about helicopter wreckage lying on the bank of Tanda river came last evening, the search parties from Rajnandgaon could move only early in the morning. However, CRPF personnel had reached the spot after midnight.

Police sources said Mansingh, a farmer from Lamara village of Chhattisgarh, had spotted the wreckage and the bodies yesterday when he had gone to the fields with his pet dog and buffalo.

After taking a bath in Tanda river, he found that his dog was standing near the bodies on the other side of the river which falls in Madhya Pradesh.

The farmer returned to the village and informed Sarodi gram panchayat Sarpanch Padamsingh, who later reached Bakargatta police station in the evening itself to inform about the wreckage.

The DIG said it appeared that the chopper crashed into the hills when the pilot tried to descend suddenly in the forest area.

UNI