Pune car crash: Teen’s family driver was offered cash, gifts and later threatened to take blame, say police

PTI, May 25, 2024, 4:27 PM IST

The father and grandfather of the 17-year-old minor allegedly involved in the Porsche crash offered cash and gifts to their family driver and later threatened him to take the blame for the accident, said Pune police chief Amitesh Kumar on Saturday.
The driver and his family will be given police protection he said.
The blood and DNA sampling reports in the case are expected next week, said Kumar.
Police arrested the grandfather for alleged wrongful confinement of the driver in his bid to coerce him to claim that he was driving the car at the time of the accident on May 19, he said.
“After the accident, the driver gave a statement at the police station that he was at the wheel when the accident took place. But it was revealed that a teen was driving the car,” said the police commissioner.
Kumar said after the driver left the Yerawada police station, where the case was registered, and was on his way, both accused whisked him in a car to his house on the premises of their bungalow, confiscated his phone and confined him there.
“He was pressured to give the statement to police as per their directions,” he said. The driver was offered gifts and cash and later threatened to take the blame, the official said.
The driver’s wife reached the place the next day and freed him, said the police chief.
“The driver was frightened. He was summoned and his statement was recorded on Thursday. After corroboration of facts, an offence against the juvenile’s father and grandfather was registered,” he said.
In this matter, the police have registered a case against the teenager’s father Vishal Agarwal and grandfather on a complaint by the family driver.
Agarwal, a real estate developer, and his father have been booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement), he said.
Agarwal is already in judicial custody.
The family driver has given a statement saying he was not driving the car when it met with the accident and that the teen’s kin were using pressure tactics to push him to take responsibility for the crash.
The driver and his family will be provided police protection, said Kumar, adding that he was in shock after his “wrongful confinement”.
The Pune police on Friday suspended two cops, including an inspector from Yerwada police station, for delayed reporting and dereliction of duty in the case. Kumar said the policemen faced action as their conduct was not appropriate.
The Porsche, allegedly driven by the teenager, who the police claim was drunk at the time, killed two motorbike-borne software engineers in the Kalyani Nagar area of the city in the early hours of Sunday (May 19).
A local court in Pune on Friday remanded the six accused arrested in the case, including the teenager’s father, in judicial custody. The teenager is in an observation home till June 5.
The Madhya Pradesh-based parents of the two IT professionals who were killed in the accident have demanded that the Supreme Court monitor the probe and the trial be held in their state.