Two tourists, who were present at Kattery near Coonoor on December 8 when the helicopter crash that killed Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others occurred, visited the Office of the Commissioner of Police here on Friday claiming to have filmed the final moment of the ill-fated chopper.
Y. Joe along with his friend H. Nazar, both residents of Coimbatore, told mediapersons that they visited the Commissioner's office to furnish details regarding the video clip available to the police. Mr. Joe said that he accompanied the family members of Mr. Nazar to a trip to the Nilgiris on the morning of November 8. At around noon, they were near the Nilgiri Mountain Railway track at Kattery as Mr. Joe were taking photographs of others.
“While taking photographs, we saw a helicopter flying in the area. As it looked and sounded different, I started to record the video on my phone,” Mr. Joe claimed, adding that the time was 12.14 p.m. when he recorded. Moments later, the chopper disappeared into the mist and all of them heard a loud crash, he added.
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“The moment we heard the sound [of the crash], we became anxious,” Mr. Nazar said. Police and fire service vehicles rushed to the spot some 10 minutes later, he said. As they were unable to meet the Collector and police officers in the Nilgiris immediately on the same day, they decided to report this to the police in Coimbatore, according to Mr. Nazar.
Commissioner of Police Pradip Kumar said that their details were collected for any possible inquiry in the future. The two persons visited the Office of the Commissioner of Police on Friday of their own volition, he noted, adding that the police is not conducting any inquiry pertaining to the helicopter crash.
The video clip, which is around 20 seconds long, was being widely shared on social media platforms since Thursday. Intelligence agencies and the Indian Air Force have taken note of the video as part of the inquiry, according to credible sources.
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