Bengaluru CCB Inspector Arun Salunke Among 6 Killed in Uttarakhand Helicopter Crash

BENGALURU:

In a profound tragedy that has sent shockwaves through the Karnataka Police department, Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) Police Inspector Arun Salunke was among six people killed when a private helicopter crashed near Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Friday afternoon.

The 2007-batch police officer was returning from a Char Dham pilgrimage alongside four close friends from Bengaluru when the accident occurred amid adverse weather conditions.

Tragic Crash Near Joshimath

The ill-fated aircraft, a helicopter operated by Trans Bharat Aviation bearing registration number VT-HCX, was flying from Badrinath to the Sahastradhara heliport in Dehradun.

According to the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA), the helicopter took off from Badrinath at approximately 1:14 PM. Shortly afterward, it lost radio communication and stopped transmitting location data while navigating through the rugged Joshimath valley.

Initial reports indicate that the helicopter crashed into a hillside near Chai village, close to the JP Power House in the Marwari area of Joshimath. Heavy rainfall, poor visibility, and dense cloud cover severely hampered early search and rescue efforts.

Joint rescue teams comprising the Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and local district administration eventually located the wreckage and recovered the bodies of all six occupants.

Victims Identified

Authorities have identified the victims of the crash as:

 Captain Himanshu Sabharwal (Pilot, from Delhi)

 Arun Salunke (Police Inspector, Bengaluru)

 Sudheer K (Advocate, Bengaluru)

 H.S. Nataraj (Bengaluru)

 Prathapa (Bengaluru)

 Shankare Gowda (Bengaluru)

The group of five friends had traveled to Uttarakhand earlier in the week to undertake the sacred Char Dham pilgrimage.

A Dedicated Career in Public Service

A native of Aratal village in Athani taluk, Belagavi district, Arun Salunke is survived by his wife and two children, who reside in Bengaluru’s Ramamurthy Nagar locality. His father and brother continue to live in his native village, where news of his untimely death has plunged the community into grief.

An alumnus of the M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Salunke entered the police service in 2007. His career trajectory included:

 Serving as an Intelligence Inspector in Delhi.

 Important policing assignments across Karnataka, including stints in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

 Station postings at Nelamangala, Kunigal, Banaswadi, and Halasuru.

 Most recently, serving in the special investigation division of Bengaluru’s Central Crime Branch.

Colleagues remembered him as a diligent, approachable officer. Notably, during his tenure as the Station House Officer at Banaswadi, the station earned high praise as one of Bengaluru’s best-performing stations under public feedback initiatives. Beyond his professional duties, Salunke was deeply passionate about Kannada literature, poetry, and cinema, frequently sharing his creative writings online.

Official Response and Safety Concerns

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami confirmed the tragedy and stated that the state government is closely monitoring the situation. In the wake of the incident, civil aviation authorities have ordered the immediate grounding of Trans Bharat Aviation’s entire fleet as a precautionary safety measure.

While preliminary assessments point toward poor visibility and harsh weather, investigators are probing the precise sequence of events that led to the communication blackout and crash.

The tragedy has reignited serious safety concerns regarding commercial helicopter operations across Uttarakhand’s challenging Himalayan terrain, particularly during volatile weather windows. For the Bengaluru Police, the loss marks the sudden departure of an exemplary officer whose dedicated service spanned nearly two decades.