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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Louis Fernandes, the wife of senior Congress leader Salman Khursheed, has refuted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh's claim that there were no lapses in the relief measure that followed the air crash in which Congress stalwart Madhavrao Scindia and seven others were killed.
The crash took place near Mota village in Bhogaon tehsil of Mainpuri district of central Uttar Pradesh on Sunday afternoon.
Louis was among the first few to reach the site of the crash at 4:15 pm. She was camping in Bhogaon, barely a few kilometres away.
When contacted over the telephone, Louis told rediff.com, "I am not disputing that the UP chief minister flew down in a chopper to the site of the crash. But what happened between 2.30 pm, when the first information report was received at the Bewar police station, and 9.30 pm, when he reached."
Louis was surprised to find that far from reprimanding the lax officials, Rajnath Singh had gone out of his way to hold a brief for the district magistrate and divisional commissioner after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee expressed his displeasure with the handling of the situation.
"Evidently, the chief minister was trying to cover up the lapses of his field officers whose apathy towards the tragedy was visible in their slow and lethargic actions," she said.
Khursheed's wife felt that the bodies could have been evacuated at least six hours earlier if the local officials had acted promptly and shown the desired interest.
"It was around 5.15 pm when an Indian Air Force helicopter arrived to pick up the injured. But on being told that there were no survivors, the pilot agreed to cart two bodies after getting a clearance from his superiors," she said.
"However, the local police did not allow the bodies to be taken away without the panchnama (a certificate signed by five persons)."
The police pleaded helplessness in carrying out the panchnama fast, because they did not have the necessary form, Louis said.
The panchnama began not before 7 pm after several Congress leaders, including Salman Khursheed and Mukul Wasnik, had arrived from Delhi. Until then, the administration had even failed to procure enough white cloth to cover the bodies.
According to Louis, "Scindia's body was put in the lone ambulance while that of the others were then carted by us on a tractor-trolley up to Bewar police station, where the chief minister later arrived."
Madhavrao Scindia's Death: The Complete Coverage
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