Helicopter carrying Pawar returns within minutes of take-off

A helicopter carrying Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar was forced to return to the helipad soon after take-off from Ahmednagar in Central Maharashtra around noon Sunday.

The NCP said the chopper had to return as the pilot had forgotten to take some important papers, but local sources said it returned as a seatbelt had not been fastened properly.

Sources in the local administration as well as district unit of the NCP said the chopper had to return within minutes of the take-off as a seatbelt was seen "dangling outside".

"Having thought important papers left behind, the pilot landed in a minute after takeoff from Ahmednagar helipad today," NCP said in a tweet, adding that it was done at the "insistence of Saheb (Pawar)" and there was nothing alarming.

Pawar was in Ahmednagar to attend a centenary function of the Ahmednagar Jilha Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj.