Deputy chief minister of India’s Maharashtra state dies in plane crash, TV channels say

[NEW DELHI] The deputy chief minister of India’s western state of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, was killed on Wednesday as his charter aircraft went down in flames, television channels said.

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

Media said Pawar’s aircraft, travelling from India’s financial capital of Mumbai, tried to make an emergency landing in the state’s city of Baramati. REUTERS