Iran threatened to shoot down Eknath Shinde's flight: Rohit Pawar

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader Rohit Pawar claimed on Wednesday that Iran and Iraq had threatened to shoot down an aircraft in 2023 carrying the then Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde.

The incident happened when Shinde, now the deputy CM, was travelling to Davos via Zurich and the VSR Aviation-operated aircraft entered Iranian airspace without seeking permission, he claimed.

A VSR Aviation chartered aircraft crashed on January 28 while landing in Baramati, killing Pawar's uncle and then Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar and four others. Rohit Pawar, who has sought to file a case against the air charter company over the Baramati crash, alleged that the incident involving Shinde underscored how recklessly VSR Aviation treated passenger safety.


A senior VSR Aviation executive called Pawar's claim baseless and said it was a routine flight without any incident.

The spokesperson for Shinde's Shiv Sena, Naresh Mhaske, said he would be meeting the deputy CM to get his view on the matter. "If this carelessness has happened indeed with a chief minister's plane, then it is serious," he said. "Before flying you have to give a flight plan and seek permission to fly from the relevant countries in whose airspace you are going to fly," Pawar said.