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Security breach at PM’s rally: chopper pilots held
Dharam Prakash Gupta
Tribune News Service

Bilaspur, December 17
The pilot and the co-pilot of an Air Deccan helicopter were today arrested for allegedly breaching the security at the venue of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s rally by landing their chopper there.

The incident took place at Luhnu ground around 1.15 pm. The Prime Minister was about to take off at that time.

The Air Deccan chopper had landed there to take Congress general secretary R.K. Dhawan to Shimla. Bilaspur SP said: “We have grounded the chopper to verify the permission to land the private chopper.” Pilot of the chopper M.S. Sehgal refused to comment, saying that “we have all permissions”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the aviation company said the helicopter impounded by the police was on a scheduled flight and was cleared by the Air Traffic Control and Air Defence authorities at 1300 hours.

The SP said: “We have registered a case under Section 336 of the IPC and Section 11 of Air Traffic Control Act, 1937.”