Maharashtra govt orders probe to find out if CM Fadnavis delayed Air India flight

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said a probe has been ordered into the delay of the US-bound flight, in  which he had travelled for his official tour recently. An Air India flight to Newark from Mumbai, in which Fadnavis flew for his week-long official tour to the US on June 29, got  delayed by nearly an hour reportedly as the CM’s aide Praveen Pardeshi had not carried his passport with a valid US visa. [caption id=“attachment_2320036” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Devendra Fadnavis. Image courtesy- PTI[/caption] “There will be two inquiries. I have requested the civil aviation minister to probe the incident. Another one will be carried out by the state government, which will inquire if the chief minister had asked for his delegation to be offloaded or held up the plane and also how the clearances were given,” Fadnavis told reporters here. The chief minister was talking to the media after the weekly cabinet meeting ahead of the three-week long monsoon session of the state legislature, which begins tomorrow. “Those (passengers) who were sitting beside me in the flight…whom I don’t even know, had tweeted that I had not done anything wrong,” he said. Principal secretary Praveen Pardeshi, who was part of the CM’s delagation, was given clearance at the customs and immigration counters at the airport despite having forgotten his visa at home. He had the valid US visa on his old passport. He arranged to bring his old passport after which he was allowed to proceed to the aircraft. The Chief Minister had earlier denied reports that he had delayed the flight. “The allegation that I forced delay of the flight to Newark is false and misleading,” Fadnavis had  tweeted. “I reiterate that the reports of me delaying the flight are misleading. In fact when I’d already boarded, how can I say that I won’t travel without delegation?” Fadnavis had posted on Twitter. He had also threatened to initiate “criminal defamation” proceedings in the matter. Meanwhile, to a question on charges of corruption against his cabinet ministers, Fadnavis said his government was ready for a probe. “We are not averse to a probe, provided the opposition is ready for a debate and discusses all issues with concrete evidence. We have zero tolerance for corruption,” he said. PTI