The defence ministry on Saturday trashed reports that a model of a Chinook chopper installed by the DRDO at the 2020 edition of DefExpo went missing. Defence Ministry spokesperson A Bharat Bhushan Babu said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) never installed any helicopter model in Lucknow.

“The news circulating about a DRDO installed Chinook Helicopter Model at Lucknow during DefExpo 2020 missing is misleading,” he said in a brief statement.

“Chinook is made by Boeing and DRDO has never installed any helicopter model at Lucknow anytime. DefExpo2020 was an incident-free exhibition and no product or model went missing during its conduct,” Babu said.

The DRDO also described the reports as “misleading”.

“There is news circulating that DRDO had installed Chinook helicopter model at Lucknow during DefExpo 2020 and model is now missing,” it said on ‘X’.

“This information is misleading as DRDO has never installed any Helicopter Model at Lucknow anytime,” it said. Officials said there was a model of a helicopter in a dilapidated condition at Sector 20 of Vrindavan Yojna area in Lucknow and it was removed following a recommendation by security personnel as a helipad had to be constructed for the prime minister’s visit to the city for an event relating to G20.