New Delhi, Feb. 3 -- The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a special audit of VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, the charter operator that owned the Learjet 45, which crashed in Baramati last week, killing Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and four others. The order, a copy of which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times, states "VSR Ventures Pvt. Ltd. Lear jet 45 aircraft VT-SSK met with an accident on 28.01.2026 at Baramati. In view of the above, a special audit of M/s VSR Ventures Pvt. Ltd is to be carried out.The team is advised to submit the report by 15th February 2026." The audit team will be led by RK Anand, Deputy Director General, and will include Pathik Vaghela, Deputy Director (Air Safety); Sushil Malik, Deputy Director (Airworthiness); and Siva Kumar Jadala, Assistant Director (Air Safety). The team will also have Capt. Apoorva Agarwal as senior flight operations inspector, SFOI (A) and Capt. Lokesh Rampal as flight operations inspector (FOI). Senior government officials told HT on condition of anonymity that the audit will check for lapses in maintenance and flight operations. Pawar had flown to Baramati at least 20 times in the last six months, including at least two flights with the same pilot before the day of the crash, one of the officials cited above added. According to records reviewed by HT, the jet, VT-SSK was actively flying since at least the last week of December, operating charters to Mumbai, Goa (Mopa), Mangaluru, Delhi, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Pune, Surat and Juhu airport in Mumbai. "While the reason for the crash last week will be known after the investigation is complete, the operator is being probed to check for lapses in maintenance and their casual approach towards flight operations," a second official said. "All parameters including the alleged under-logging of flying hours will be thoroughly examined," this person added. This comes as various insiders have alleged that VSR under-logs engine hours and crew flying time. Stretching engine hours leads to delay in maintenance schedule effectively saving costs for the operator. HT emailed VSR for a response but did not get one till the time of going to print. A third official said safety regulator DGCA has already compiled data from past audits of the operator. The eight-seater Learjet 45 business jet, crashed in Baramati on Wednesday....