IAF pilot's widow seeks help

The widow of Wing Commander Vikas Jetly, a top Indian Air Force stunt pilot, who died on January 11, 2011 after being in coma for four years, has complained to the Defence Minister that the IAF had withheld for over a year dues to her husband.

Vikas (42), who was invalidated from service on January 6, last year performed stunts for IAF’s Sarang helicopter display team and he was confined to the hospital bed after the Dhruv helicopter he was flying crashed outside Bangalore on February 2, 2007,  days before the Aero Show. His co-pilot, Squadron Leader Priye Sharma was killed in the incident.

Repeated pleas

Forty-year-old Shalini Jetly, has also complained that her husband’s employer had not responded for her three-year long  request for a teaching job at The Air Force School (TAFS) despite repeated pleas.

As a last resort, Shalini wrote to Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday (January 18) expressing her distress and hardships she is undergoing, and urged him to intervene and persuade IAF to settle the dues and also help her to get a job on compassionate grounds at the IAF school where her children Sukrit, 12, and Tanisha, 8 study.

Not cleared

In the letter, a copy of which is in the possession of Deccan Herald, Shalini said: “...His pension, gratuity, leave encashment and a part of his insurance payments have not been cleared till date. I have been pleading with the IAF officials to clear his dues, but unfortunately no help has been forthcoming.”

No energy left

“I am writing directly to you as I don’t think I have the energy left to continue pleading with IAF officials... I have all hopes on you.”

Sources from the South Block told Deccan Herald that Antony had made time from his busy schedule to read the letter.

In her letter to Antony, Shalini said she was a post-graduate and has a BEd degree from Lady Irwin College in New Delhi, adding that a job at TAFS would provide her a livelihood and also enable her to spend more time with her children.

Many past students of TAFS have written to the principal urging that Shalini be given a job. A school girl from Bangalore has offered to part with her savings in order to help the family.