Following the tragic plane crash that claimed the life of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, speculation of a conspiracy quickly began to circulate. The rumours soon spread beyond political circles and gained traction online. One widely shared theory cited a screenshot of Pawar’s Wikipedia page, which appeared to show his death being updated hours before the crash. The image sparked widespread suspicion and fueled claims of possible foul play.
A screenshot of Pawar's Wikipedia page, updated just hours before his passing, has been widely shared. Conversations about it have been ongoing. Here are some potential reasons for this conclusion: The site serves as an online repository of information that registered users can modify. While it typically contains verified news and event details, there have been occasional instances where the information was incorrect or changed.
The Maharashtra DGIPR has dismissed viral social media claims suggesting the Baramati plane crash was orchestrated. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the department clarified that although Wikipedia showed Ajit Pawar’s death date 21 hours before the accident, this does not indicate foul play.
The DGIPR stated, “Wikipedia had updated the date of Ajit Pawar’s death on his page 21 hours before the accident involving the Deputy Chief Minister’s plane. Therefore, claims circulating on social media suggesting that the crash was orchestrated are false.”
On the question of timing, it’s important to note that Wikipedia timestamps edits in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), which runs 5 hours and 30 minutes behind IST. So, an edit appearing at 5:00 AM UTC would show up as 10:30 AM IST, a discrepancy that can easily fuel misunderstanding.
In this case, the time-zone gap may explain why the update appeared to precede the crash, a detail that has been seized upon by conspiracy theorists amid the broader online speculation.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar died when his aircraft crashed while landing in Baramati, his political stronghold. The Learjet 45XR, which took off from Mumbai at 8:10 AM and was due to land at 8:50 AM, went down in flames, killing Pawar and four others on board, including the pilots, a flight attendant, and his security personnel.