Pune teen's Porsche crash: Pune Police commissioner Amitesh Kumar on Monday claimed that doctors in Sassoon General Hospital had collected the blood sample of a teen driver, who is an accused in the Pune Porsche accident case, and switched it with those of another person who had not consumed alcohol, before discarding it in a dustbin.
Amitesh Kumar said Dr Ajay Taware, head of the forensics department at Sassoon Hospital in Pune, and Dr Shrihari Harnor, chief medical officer at Sassoon, were arrested for alleged manipulation in blood reports and tampering with the evidence in the Porsche crash case.
"On May 19, around 11am, the blood sample which was taken at Sassoon Hospital in Pune was thrown in a dustbin of the hospital, and the blood sample of another person was taken and sent to the forensic lab... CMO Srihari Harnor replaced this blood sample. During the investigation, we found Srihari Harnor replaced this on the instructions of the HOD forensic medicine department of Sassoon, Ajay Tawre," Amitesh Kumar said at a press conference.
The case is currently being probed by the crime branch.
{{/usCountry}}The case is currently being probed by the crime branch.
{{/usCountry}}Two IT professionals died after their motorcycle was hit by a speeding Porsche allegedly driven by the minor in the early hours of May 19. The police claim the teenager was drunk at the time of the accident. The teenager was initially granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board, which also asked him to write an essay on road accidents, but following outrage over the lenient treatment and a review application by the police, he was sent to an observation home till June 5.
The police have arrested the teenager's father, who is a realtor, and his grandfather in connection with the accident.
“Sections 120 (B), 467 Forgery and 201, 213, 214 destruction of evidence have been added to this matter. We received the forensic report yesterday and it has been revealed that the sample collected at Sassoon Hospital, which the doctor there sealed and wrote the name of the juvenile accused before sending it to the forensics, was not the sample of the juvenile accused,” the Pune Police commissioner said.
"After this, we detained the doctors who had sealed this report and sent it to forensics. During preliminary investigation, it was revealed that he had taken the sample of the juvenile accused but had thrown it in the dustbin, and replaced it with the sample of another person and sent it to the forensics. He did this on the instructions of Dr Ajay Taware, who is the HOD of forensic medicine of Sassoon Hospital. We will produce them in court and request for police custody remand," he added.
The police claimed that the teenager was drunk at the time of the accident. The teenager was initially granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board, which also asked him to write an essay on road accidents, but following outrage over the lenient treatment and a review application by the police, he was sent to an observation home till June 5.
The Pune Police has arrested the teenager's father Vishal Agarwal, who is a realtor, and his grandfather Surendra Agarwal in connection with the accident.
On Saturday last week, the Pune Police arrested the grandfather claiming that both the teenager's father and grandfather put pressure on the family's driver to take the blame for the accident by offering him money and giving threats.
Surendra Agarwal was arrested for “illegal confinement” of the driver, and a court subsequently remanded him in police custody till May 28. The minor's father, in judicial custody in another case registered in connection with the May 19 accident, too was named in the FIR. "After the accident, the driver gave a statement at the Yerawada police station that he was at the wheel....But it was revealed that the teen was driving the car,” Amitesh Kumar told reporters earlier.
After the driver left the Yerawada police station, Vishal Agarwal and his grandfather whisked him in a car to his house on the premises of their bungalow, confiscated his phone and confined him there, the top cop claimed.
“He was pressured to give a statement to police as per their directions,” Amitesh Kumar said, adding that the driver was offered gifts and cash for owning up the crash of the Porsche driven by the teenager, and also threatened.
The Agarwal family offered to pay the driver "any amount he quoted," the commissioner said, adding that his wife reached the place the next day and freed him.
“The driver was frightened. He was summoned and his statement was recorded on Thursday (May 23). After corroboration of facts, an offence was registered against the juvenile’s father and grandfather (on the driver's complaint),” Kumar said.
Vishal Agarwal and his father were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 365 (kidnapping) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement). Police will seek Vishal's custody in the case from the court on Monday.
Earlier, a local politician had accused Surendra of having connections with gangster Chhota Rajan.
Opposing police custody, defence lawyer Prashant Patil argued that the driver was in the car at the time of the accident, and denied the allegation that he was wrongfully confined in the house.
"As there was an outcry over the incident, the driver chose to go to the servant quarters at the bungalow of the accused on his own and stayed there till next day. There is no question of the driver getting threatened," Patil claimed.
The teenager was earlier granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board which also asked him to write an essay on road accidents, but following outrage over the lenient treatment and a review application by the police, he was sent to an observation home till June 5.