The parents of the 17-year-old who allegedly crashed a Porsche into a motorcycle, killing two software engineers, told police on Saturday that it was indeed their son who was behind the wheels and the mother also owned up to evidence tampering, an official aware of the investigation said and added that the latter was then put under arrest.
The disclosure to police during questioning is the first admission from the family that the juvenile, who was allegedly drunk at the time of the crash, was driving the unregistered car during the incident on May 19.
In the following hours, the family is accused of trying to force their on-roll driver to take the blame and bribed doctors to switch out the son’s blood sample with his mother’s to conceal the fact that he was inebriated.
With Saturday’s arrest, 11 people have now been arrested, including both parents and the grandfather of the 17-year-old, who was out celebrating with friends before he allegedly drove drunk.
“During the interrogation of arrested accused, it became clear that mother’s blood sample was replaced with minor’s sample,” said a statement by the Pune police.
The release referred to interrogation of suspended forensics department head Dr Ajay Taware, former casualty medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor, and mortuary staffer Atul Ghalkamble of the Sassoon General Hospital, who were arrested on Monday for allegedly changing the blood samples of the minor.
{{/usCountry}}The release referred to interrogation of suspended forensics department head Dr Ajay Taware, former casualty medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor, and mortuary staffer Atul Ghalkamble of the Sassoon General Hospital, who were arrested on Monday for allegedly changing the blood samples of the minor.
{{/usCountry}}Witnesses have said the boy was inebriated at the time of the incident, a fact that could not be determined due to the blood sample tampering.
The 17-year-old, the son of a real estate developer, was released with a slap on the wrist by the juvenile board hours after the accident, but was taken into custody once the incident came to light and triggered public outrage and has since been held at a detention home.
Crime branch officials detained the mother on Saturday morning and interrogated her about exchanging blood samples at Sassoon General Hospital, as well as kidnapping and abducting the car driver in order to force him to take the fall for the fatal crash.
“Prima facie it seems that she is involved in tampering of evidence (by way of changing blood sample). We will ascertain this further after detailed investigation,” said additional commissioner of police (crime) Shailesh Balkawade. By 3pm, she and the father were arrested.
Police said they have “technical” evidence of the mother’s presence at the hospital during the blood collection on May 19. Dr Taware, Dr Halnor and Ghalkamble allegedly swapped the teen’s blood for an initial payment of ₹3 lakh.
It is on the basis of this evidence that police initially detained the boy’s mother and subsequently, after other accused corroborated about blood sample swap, she was arrested.
“We have all technical evidences of juvenile’s mother’s presence at Sassoon Hospital at the time of the blood sample collection of juveniles and we will submit it to the court,” said another police officer.
According to police, the juvenile’s first blood sample was taken on May 19 at around 11am at the Sassoon General Hospital. When police suspected manipulation of blood sample, another sample of the juvenile was taken at Aundh Government Hospital. A third blood sample of the juvenile’s father was taken and sent for DNA matching with the first sample, which revealed the first one was manipulated and the blood someone else.
Officials also said that they are now looking for an as-yet unnamed person who is believed to be in possession of the boy’s original blood sample, based on disclosures by the arrested suspects. The police initially said that the boy’s first sample was thrown into a dustbin.
Statements from paramedical staff and trainee doctors present during the swap have been recorded. Police also seized CCTV footage, which revealed the swap occurred in an area not covered by cameras.
Police are investigating who else was present at Sassoon General Hospital at the time of exchange of blood samples.
The father was arrested for allowing the minor to drive despite being underage, wrongful confinement, and issuing threats to the driver to take responsibility for the accident. The minor has been detained at an observation home.
The juvenile’s father exchanged 14 calls with Dr Taware within hours of the May 19 accident, when the reportedly inebriated minor killed techies Aneesh Awadhiya, 24, and Ashwini Koshta, 24.