A grand plan of two Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders to send off their newly-wed wards in style failed to take wings after the chopper, especially hired for the vidai, developed a technical snag here in Chinhat on Wednesday.
While the angry leaders summoned the cops demanding refund, the incident left several villagers, who had come to watch the 'spectacle', disappointed.
The leaders - MLA Ram Pal Yadav and former MLA Rajendra Yadav - had hired the helicopter from Mumbai based Aryan Aviation Company for the vidai ceremony of their children Ramendra and Ankita respectively.
It was supposed to take off from the campus of a primary school at Chinhat and land at the bridegroom's residence in Sitapur with a royal flourish. But the anti-climax let everyone down, including those who had come especially from far and wide.
"I have come from Sitapur to see the newly-wed couple fly in 'Udan Khatola' (chopper) but it was such a disappointment," said Rajesh Kumar, a guest.
The families of the couple got the first whiff of the trouble when they realised the pilot, Pundir Vikram Singh, was delaying the take-off by around four hours. Thereafter, enraged supporters of the two leaders called up the police and even dragged the pilot to a police station.
{{/usCountry}}The families of the couple got the first whiff of the trouble when they realised the pilot, Pundir Vikram Singh, was delaying the take-off by around four hours. Thereafter, enraged supporters of the two leaders called up the police and even dragged the pilot to a police station.
{{/usCountry}}Gomti Nagar circle officer (CO) VS Mishra said Rajendra Yadav submitted a written complaint and demanded return the prepaid amount (Rs. 7 lakh).
Vikas Tomar, assistant manager (operations) of the aviation company, told HT over phone that there was no need to make an issue of the incident.
"Such type of technical faults do occur and the company always returns the amount in such situations," he said.
While RP Yadav is sitting SP MLA from Biswa constituency of Sitapur, Rajendra Yadav is former SP MLA of Mahona constituency of Lucknow.