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Pune Porsche accident: Hospital sacks doctor who ‘changed’ teen's blood sample
Dr Shrihari Halnor of Sassoon General Hospital was sacked after he allegedly replaced the teen's blood samples with another person's samples.
In a major development in the Pune Porche car accident case, a doctor accused of manipulating the blood samples of the teenage driver has been sacked by the state-run Sassoon General Hospital, reported India Today.
Dr Shrihari Halnor, the chief medical officer of the hospital, was sacked after he, along with two others, allegedly discarded the teen's blood samples and replacing them with another person's samples that showed no traces of alcohol.
News18 reported the Maharashtra government said earlier that it would take action against Dr Ajay Taware, head of the state-run Sassoon Hospital’s forensic medicine department, chief medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor and staffer Atul Ghatkamble. The suspension order of the two others is likely to be passed after the inquiry committee's preliminary report, said unnamed sources told News18.
Of the three accused, Dr Ajay Taware's suspension order is likely to to come from Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde's office as he is a class one employee.
Taware, Halnor and Ghatkamble were arrested after an inquiry revealed that they allegedly threw away the blood samples of the minor accused in the Pune Porsche accident case and replaced them with the samples of another person with no alcohol traces in the blood.
The Maharashtra state's woman and child development department established a five-person committee to investigate whether the Juvenile Justice Board (JJ Board) members, appointed by the state, followed correct legal procedures when granting bail to the teenager involved in the May 19 Pune car accident.
The report, citing sources, said the committee visited the casualty department and the medical centre and also understood the blood sample collection process, its preservation, and dispatch to the forensic science lab.
Earlier, the Crime Branch Unit of Pune Police, which is probing the high-profile case, continued interrogating two doctors who were arrested in the case. The district court remanded both doctors to police custodyuntil May 30.
When asked about the multiple media reports published that there was a call exchange between Dr. Ajay Taware and MLA Tingre after the incident in the early hours of May 20, the senior official of Pune police confirmed that as of now there is no connection established between MLA Tingre and Dr. Taware.
Two IT professionals were killed after a speeding Porche, allegedly driven by an intoxicated 17-year-old, hit their motorcycle. The blood report became a key piece of the investigation as CCTV footage and police investigation states that the teenager had been drinking before the accident.
