Special Prosecutor Sought For Pune Porsche Crash Case Involving Minor Driver
Reported by Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 3rd June 2024: Pune City Police, investigating the fatal Porsche car crash that claimed the lives of two young techies, are pushing for the appointment of a Special Public Prosecutor and a fast-track trial after the chargesheet is submitted by the end of this month. Today, a blood sample from the minor driver’s mother was collected for a DNA test.
A senior police officer told Punekar News, “Pune police will be seeking the appointment of a Special Public Prosecutor in the case. We have shortlisted some names, and the state government will make the appointment. We will file two chargesheets — one against the minor at the Juvenile Justice Board and another in court against the parents and the three Sassoon employees. We plan to file a chargesheet by the end of June or earlier.”
Around 2.30 am on May 19, a Porsche driven by a 17-and-a-half-year-old boy under the influence of alcohol hit a motorcycle, killing IT engineers Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta in Kalyani Nagar.
The minor driver has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and violations under the Motor Vehicles Act. Additionally, two doctors and a staff member from Sassoon General Hospital, along with the minor’s parents, have been charged with swapping the minor’s blood sample with his mother’s.
Earlier, police arrested Dr. Ajay Taware, then head of the Forensic Medicine Department at Sassoon Hospital, Dr. Shrihari Harnol, the Casualty Medical Officer at the time, and Atul Ghatkamble, a morgue staffer, for allegedly altering the minor’s blood sample in exchange for financial favors. The three have been suspended and are in police custody.
On Saturday, police arrested the minor’s mother Shivani Agarwal (49) and took custody of his father Vishal Agarwal (50) from judicial remand for their involvement in the blood sample swap. The mother allegedly provided her blood to be swapped with her son’s sample intended for alcohol concentration testing. A DNA sample from the mother was collected on Monday.
Police claim the original blood sample was discarded after the swap.
The mother and father were produced before a court in Pune on Sunday and have been remanded to police custody until June 5.
