BENGALUURU/CHAMOLI: A 44-year-old police inspector from Bengaluru city and his four friends who were on a pilgrimage to Badrinath died in a helicopter crash in Uttarakhand on an overcast Friday after the chopper lost contact within minutes after takeoff. The copter pilot was among the dead.According to sources, the five had reached Uttarakhand on Wednesday and taken a chopper ride between Badarinath and Dehradun.The deceased have been identified as Arun Salunke, HS Nataraj, 51, K Sudheer, 39, Shankar Gowda, 34 and B Pratap Gowda, 41 (all from Karnataka). The dead pilot was identified as Capt Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, from Delhi.The helicopter lost contact in less than two minutes after taking off from Badrinath. “The helicopter (VT-HCX) departed from Badrinath for Sahastradhara (Dehradun) at 1.12pm. At 1.14pm, contact with the helicopter was lost near Joshimath and information regarding its disappearance was received from an Army post,” a source said. The District Emergency Operations Centre said the helicopter was spotted by the Army’s Signal Centre team in the Hathi Parvat area and “smoke was seen rising from the helicopter, and it was observed losing altitude rapidly”.According to sources, the bodies were found in the wreckage in Chai village. Due to darkness and the difficult terrain, the bodies will be brought back from the crash site on Saturday.Who were the 5 killed?Arun Salunke, attached to the special inquiry squad with the Central Crime Branch and from Artal village in Athani taluk of Belagavi district, was in the news when he booked an IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, Vikas Marmat, and his friends on alleged charges of misbehaving with and abusing cops on the intervening night of Oct 10 and Oct 11. The incident had taken place when a team led by Salunke entered a night club to inspect whether liquor was being served to underage revellers.Nataraj was a businessman from Huliyurdurga in Tumakuru; Pratap, a civil contractor, was from Jakkur in the city; Sudheer K, from Nagarabavi, and Shankar Gowda, from Tumakuru, were advocates.According to a statement from the Karnataka govt, the CM’s office and the relief commissioner are coordinating with their counterparts in Uttarakhand to facilitate shifting the mortal remains to Karnataka soon.
