TOI

Mumbai, May 4: Two employees of aircraft maintenance firm Airworks India Engineering Pvt Ltd were on Monday arrested for their alleged role in the sabotage of industrialist Anil Ambani's helicopter, Mumbai Crime Branch said.

"Our investigations show that the two have played a major role in the conspiracy leading to the tampering of the Bell 412 helicopter belonging to the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)," a police official said.

The duo has been identified as Palraj Thevar and Uday Warekar, working as technical helpers in the company. They would be presented before a magistrate at the metropolitan court later Monday, he added.

Apart from the two, the police are also interrogating a former Airworks employee, Vijay Patankar, who was detained on Sunday, the official said.

Police have ruled out corporate rivalry as the cause of sabotage.

A key witness in the case, Airworks technician Bharat Borge, was found dead on the railway tracks at Vile Parle on April 28 and could have been under pressure from the police as well as the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group to disclose names of the culprits, sources earlier said.

Borge, who had spotted stones and gravel in the fuel tank on the evening of April 23 and reported it to his seniors, refused to give any names to the police even after three days of questioning, before he was found dead.

It was likely he faced threats from the culprits who were afraid of being identified. A senior police officer, however, said Borge had given them enough information leading to the suspects.

The day before Borge run over by a train, he had been questioned by security officers of the Anil Ambani group at the Airworks hangar. However, cops gave a clean chit to these officers on Friday after interrogating them. ``We do not suspect these officers pressured Borge. They met him briefly and left in less than two minutes,'' said GRP assistant commissioner Prakash Sawant.