‘No complaint against Jindals’

Chauhan, who was commissioned into the Artillery Regiment in 1982, had moved to the Aviation Corps (Air Observation Post). He retired pre-maturely in 2002 to become a private helicopter pilot.

He flew several BJP leaders for campaign all over Uttar Pradesh during the last Lok Sabha elections. Chauhan had joined as pilot with the Jindal Group only six months ago.

‘‘He never said no to work, he was a fine gentleman,’’ said Chandrashekhar Sharma, a BJP campaign coordinator who had worked with Chauhan during the last Lok Sabha elections.

Chauhan’s elder son Tejeshwar Singh, 17, has just finished school and is preparing to enter the National Defence Academy, while younger son, Tanveer, is in Class X. They appeared remarkably calm even as their mother, Anju, wept inconsolably.

‘‘I have nothing to say really. The only thing I must do now is console my mother,’’ Tejeshwar told The Indian Express. The brothers worked industriously to accommodate a flood of relatives and friends in their small two-bedroom flat.

Ironically, while Haryana ministers O.P. Jindal and Surinder Singh were killed instantly in the crash, Chauhan had survived with critical injuries. He died on way to a hospital.

The deceased pilot’s friend and junior in the Army, Lt Col B.C. Yadav, said: ‘‘A friend of the family was in Saharanpur when she saw the news on television. We requested her to rush to the hospital. She saw that his body was lying there with nobody attending to it.’’

Tejeshwar, however, said they have no complaints. ‘‘The Jindals and the state government have acted to the best of their abilities. I have no complaints of any sort,’’ he said.