Pune police arrest juvenile’s mother in Porsche car accident case

PTI, Jun 1, 2024, 9:18 AM IST

Pune police have arrested the mother of the juvenile in the Porsche car accident case after confirmation that his blood samples were replaced with hers, the city police chief said on Saturday.

She is likely to be produced in a court during the day. Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said the accident investigation has revealed that the juvenile’s blood samples were swapped with those of his mother.

Police had told a local court two days ago that the blood samples of the juvenile were exchanged with those of a woman.

Two IT professionals were killed in the early hours of May 19 in Kalyani Nagar in Pune after a Porsche allegedly being driven by the minor, who the police claim was drunk, rammed into their two-wheeler.

While the 17-year-old minor has been sent to an observation home till June 5, his father, realtor Vishal Agarwal, and grandfather Surendra Agarwal have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping the family’s driver and putting pressure on him to take the blame. A court on Friday remanded the minor’s father and grandfather in judicial custody for 14 days after their police custody ended.

Dr Ajay Taware, then head of the department of forensic medicine at Sassoon General Hospital, medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor and employee Atul Ghatkamble for allegedly manipulating the minor’s blood samples to show that he was not drunk at the time of the accident.

As per the police, about a dozen calls were exchanged between Vishal Agarwal and Dr Ajay Taware, one of the arrested doctors, while samples were being collected for testing for alcohol consumption.

“The police found that Dr Ajay Taware was on leave on the night of the Pune accident and he got a call from someone. He accepted Rs 3 lakh, called Dr Halnor to manipulate the blood samples,” Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif had said on Friday.

Police on Friday moved an application for Vishal Agarwal’s custody in connection with the alleged switching of the blood samples. Meanwhile, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) has allowed police to investigate the minor allegedly involved in the Porsche crash. Under the Juvenile Justice Act, the inquiry of a minor has to be conducted in the parents’ presence.

The JJB granted bail to the teenager, son of real estate developer Vishal Agarwal, a few hours after the May 19 crash and asked him to write a 300-word essay on road safety. Amid a nationwide outcry, police again approached the JJB, which modified the order and sent him to the observation home till June 5.

After the bail was given to the juvenile by a single member of the JJ Board, the Maharashtra government set up a committee to probe the conduct of the state-appointed members of JJB and check if norms were followed while issuing orders in the Pune car crash case.

The committee, headed by a deputy commissioner, will submit its report by next week, Prashant Narnavare, commissioner of the Women and Child Department, had said earlier.