A lawyer representing the teen accused in Pune's Porsche car crash case said on Thursday the teenager was “unable to get admission” to a management institute in Delhi because the institute required a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).
Though the defence filed a plea with the board to obtain the NOC, they later withdrew.
Special Public Prosecutor Shishir Hiray said the defence submitted an application to the JJB, highlighting that the Child in Conflict with Law (CCL) was unable to secure admission because of the pending case and the institute's insistence on an NOC. “I responded that education was everyone's right guaranteed by the Constitution and he (minor accused) must get admission,” Hiray said.
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Why did the institute cancel the teen’s admission?
The defence said in its application that the 17-year-old boy, allegedly behind the wheel of the Porsche that collided with two motorbike-borne IT engineers in May, had applied for a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) course at a Delhi-based institute.
{{/usCountry}}The defence said in its application that the 17-year-old boy, allegedly behind the wheel of the Porsche that collided with two motorbike-borne IT engineers in May, had applied for a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) course at a Delhi-based institute.
{{/usCountry}}The institute initially granted the boy, whose father is a prominent builder in Pune, admission but later revoked it, requesting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which is handling his case.
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Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ganesh Ingale, the investigating officer, explained that the defence sought directions from the JJB regarding the admission issue but eventually decided to withdraw the application.
“The defence stated that they no longer want to pursue admission in the Delhi-based institute and (the teenager) now wants to take admission in a Pune college,” he said.
New charges against juvenile
The Pune police on Thursday, September 26, filed additional charges against the 17-year-old involved in the May 19 Porsche hit-and-run incident, accusing him of destroying evidence, forgery, and violations under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A supplementary report with these new charges was submitted to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), approximately three months after the initial “final report” had charged the minor with “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The teenage driver was reportedly under the influence of alcohol when his luxury car fatally struck two IT professionals on a motorbike in Kalyani Nagar, Pune, during the early hours of May 19. Both victims, one of whom was a woman, died in the crash.
In June, police had submitted their final report to the JJB, outlining evidence against the teen. By July, they had also filed a chargesheet in a Pune court implicating seven people connected to the case, including the boy’s parents.
The parents, along with two doctors and a staffer from Sassoon General Hospital, were accused of swapping the teen's blood sample with his mother’s after the incident. Two others reportedly acted as intermediaries to arrange bribes between the father and the medical personnel, as noted in the chargesheet.