A chartered flight on its way to Bangkok was unexpectedly asked to turn back mid-air to Pune on Monday, creating a dramatic twist. The flight had Rushiraj Sawant, son of ex-Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena MLC Tanaji Sawant, on board whose sudden departure with two friends had sent alarm bells ringing back home. A kidnapping complaint, a rapid police probe, and an emergency intervention later, the plane was back where it started.
How did this come about?
Rushiraj goes ‘missing’
The saga started when 32-year-old Rushiraj Sawant left for Bangkok on a private chartered plane with two friends, without telling his family.
Alarms were raised when his parents could not reach him for several hours. Things took a further turn when an unknown caller to the police control room told them that Rushiraj had been taken away by force.
In line with The Indian Express, an employee of JSPM Narhe Technical Campus—a school administered by the Jayawant Shikshan Prasarak Mandal (JSPM) Trust of the Sawant family—claimed that director Rushiraj had been supposedly kidnapped in a Swift vehicle.
Reacting swiftly, Pune Police registered a kidnapping FIR and transferred the case to the Crime Branch. Meanwhile, Tanaji Sawant and his family sought assistance from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, senior leaders in Mumbai, and the Union Civil Aviation Ministry in an urgent bid to bring Rushiraj back.
Expressing concern, Tanaji Sawant told reporters, “It never happens in our home. Even though he (Rushiraj) is traveling to Wakad in the Pimpri-Chinchwad suburbs, he tells me. But when we realized that he had traveled with two friends without driving his car and had taken a private chartered flight, we were worried… And for this reason, I called CP saheb (the Police Commissioner of Pune), other senior police officers, and Fadnavis saheb (CM Devendra Fadnavis). Police are also doing their best, and we are also doing our best to get him back.”
A Shiv Sena Member of the Legislative Council, Tanaji Sawant was once a minister in the government of Eknath Shinde. His sons, Rushiraj and Giriraj, are both important positions held in the JSPM Trust and manage the family businesses across agriculture and real estate, according to public documents.
The High-Flying Investigation
As officials dug deeper, they found that Rushiraj and his group had reserved a chartered plane to Bangkok one day earlier for ₹78 lakh with the help of a Noida-based flight charter operator.
While the plane was cruising over Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, pilots were suddenly told to head back.
Talking to PTI, one of the airline executives said, “When we got the first call from the family members requesting us to reverse the flight, we didn’t believe it. We don’t believe in such calls normally because they can be hoax calls. But after checking with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA, and getting to know it was a kidnapping case under investigation by the police, we agreed to reverse the flight back to Pune.”
To prevent panic among passengers aboard, the crew secretly shut off the navigation display of the flight so that the passengers would not be aware of the diversion.
“The map and navigation screen was turned off, and they did not even realize it was flying back to Pune,” the executive disclosed. “They were only relaxing after lunch.”
When the flight finally landed at Pune International Airport between 8 and 8:30 pm on Monday, Rushiraj and his friends were shocked and confronted the pilots. But the pilot-in-command explained coolly that they were just following orders.
“After the flight landed, CISF officials rushed onto the plane and took them out,” the executive further added.
Rushiraj’s Explanation
When he came back to Pune, Rushiraj explained to the police that the journey was for business reasons. He accepted that after one recent trip to Dubai, he was worried his family would be disapproving of another such journey abroad too soon, and so he wanted to keep this one a secret.
But he did not mention the details of his business proposals.
As per Times of India, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shailesh Balkawade said Rushiraj, in the presence of his family, informed the police he did not know that his ride would turn into something like this. His two friends also gave statements.
A high-ranking police official later affirmed that, as per the testimonies, there was no trace of an abduction and the case would be closed within a while.
Political Repercussions
The incident provoked severe criticism from opposition leaders, who blamed Tanaji Sawant for using state resources for a personal issue. Some opposition leaders called for action against him and Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar Mohol for making the situation possible.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, the spokesperson of Shiv Sena, criticized the act, stating, “The whole system appears to have been misused because the son of a politician had gone to Bangkok in anger. It is sheer misuse of power. Both Sawant and Mohol must be taken to task in the issue.”
But Rushiraj’s older brother, Giriraj, defended the brothers, saying their father did what “any parent would have.” He explained, “It just happened out of panic, and a complaint of abduction was filed.”
Though the debate about the in-flight return is ongoing, the political hurricane surrounding it has no signs of dying down any time soon.
