CBI constitutes special team to probe YSR's death

CBI has formed a special team to investigate the death of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash last week after the state government asked for a central probe.

CBI has formed a special team to investigate the death of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash last week after the state government asked for a central probe.

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The team headed by SP CBI Vizag G Nageshwar Rao will probe the mysterious circumstances under which the helicopter carrying Reddy and two others crashed in the dense forests of Nallamala forest range in Kurnool district killing all the five occupants including the two pilots.

The team will visit the site where Reddy's chopper crashed and scrutinise the log details of the Air Traffic Control in Hyderabad and Chennai.

Sources in the agency said the probe has been ordered under section 174 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The probe under the section is conducted by a police officer specially empowered by the State Government when the deceased has been killed by another or by an animal or by machinery or by an accident.

The state government has also formed a two-member expert committee comprising retired IPS officer and VIP Security expert M R Reddy and former DGCA H S Khola to investigate the incident from all angles and submit its report in 60 days.

Interim Chief Minister K Rosaiah, who held a high-level meeting to discuss the helicopter tragedy on September seven, had spoken to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and requested that a probe by the CBI be ordered into the incident.