MUMBAI, India: Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, India's wealthiest state, who was killed in a charter aircraft crash on January 28 along with four others, was accorded a state funeral the next day.

Pawar and four others died when their private Lear Jet 45, owned by VSR Ventures, crashed in the politician's hometown of Baramati while attempting a landing, some 155 miles from Mumbai, the state capital and the country's financial capital.

The funeral of Pawar (66) was attended by ministers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, the state's chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, and other politicians cutting across party lines, along with thousands of his supporters, on January 29.

Pawar was the nephew of Sharad Pawar, also a former chief minister of Maharashtra state, a former Union minister in the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, and a powerful regional satrap.

Also killed in the crash were Pawar's personal security officer, Vidip Jadhav; the pilot, Captain Sumeet Kapoor; the co-pilot, Captain Shambhavi Pathak; and crew member Pinki Mali.

Video images showed smoke billowing from some of the burning wreckage of the plane, scattered across an open field.

"At first it was on fire; after that there were four or five more explosions," an unidentified witness told the ANI news agency after seeing the plane crash and explode. But the flames were too fierce to pull anyone out, he added.

Pawar backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in the state government, leading a faction that split in 2023 from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party led by his uncle, Sharad Pawar.

In a post on X, Modi said Pawar's death was "shocking and saddening."

Pawar had left Mumbai early in the morning for his constituency to canvass in local body elections. The pilot reportedly failed to spot the landing strip in the fog and circled the spot. After a second attempt failed, the pilot tried to make an emergency landing.

An amateur video showed the aircraft flipping over and crashing to the ground a few metres from the runway. The town has a rudimentary landing strip without ATC or ALS facilities. Flying schools conduct their training sessions here for budding pilots. Baramati is also just 54 miles from Pune, which has an international airport.

Photo credit: IANS/Xinhua