Chennai: The Nilgiris police have sent the phone used to record the visuals of the chopper minutes before the crash for forensic examination and have decided to probe why the people went into the dense forest which is prohibited due to animal movement on December 8. An IAF Mi-17V5 helicopter crashed at Katteri near Coonoor of Nilgiris district killing CDS Bipin Rawat and his wife along with 11 other personnel on December 8.
According to a report on PTI, a 52-year-old man Joe Alias Kutty (55), a wedding photographer in Coimbatore, who along with his friend and family went to the forest for clicking pictures but instead reportedly recorded the purported last minutes of the chopper before its crash. Hence, the Nilgiris police intensified the probe and questioned Joe to get more details about the incident. They have also sent his phone for forensic test to a lab in Coimbatore.
Meanwhile, the Nilgiris police in a release said that they are probing on all possible angles that could have led to the fatal incident.
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The police have also asked Tamil Nadu Electricity Board authorities to know whether there were any high transmission lines near the accident zone.
The police have also written to India Meteorological Department in Chennai to assess the weather condition on the day of the incident and have deployed a special task force to comb the forest area.
The residents and witnesses of the crash from Katteri are also investigated.
The police have also registered a case under Section 174 Crpc to discover the cause of the death.
The Nilgiris police have formed a special team headed by additional SP of Nilgiris Muthumanickam to probe the case.