Shimla, July 18 : A MiG-21 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed on Wednesday during a routine sortie in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district, officials said. The pilot was reported missing and a court of inquiry has been ordered.

Kangra Superintendent of Police Santosh Patial told reporters that the aircraft crashed in Patta Jatian village in Jawali area around 1.30 p.m. The pilot's whereabouts are being ascertained, Patial said.

The accident spot is around 70 km from district headquarters Dharamsala. According to IAF officers, the MiG-21 had taken off from the Pathankot IAF station. Two IAF choppers had landed at the site and airmen were carrying out an investigation. 

On June 5, an IAF Jaguar fighter jet had crashed in Kutch in Gujarat soon after takeoff, killing the pilot.

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Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.

A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.

In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.

Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.

However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.

The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.

Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.

"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.

Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.