Pune Police made shocking new revelations Friday in the Porsche crash case, claiming several members of the family of the accused – the teen boy who was allegedly drunk while driving the Rs 2.5 crore electric supercar – when it ran over and killed two people, were also drunk.
The accused’s father, mother, and brother were all drunk when doctors at the state-run Sassoon Hospital were bribed to swap out the accused’s blood samples with theirs, the police said.
This, the cops said, was an effort to lie about alcohol levels and “save the teen”.
The original plan, the cops said, was to use blood samples from the teen’s father or brother. But since they were both also drunk, blood was taken from the mother, who has since been arrested, instead.
The mother had earlier appeared in a video message in which she claimed a viral video that seemed to feature her son was fake. She also appealed to the cops to “protect” him and broke down on camera.
According to eyewitnesses at the crash site, the boy was so drunk he could barely stand. But when the preliminary medical report was filed there was a ‘negative’ reading for blood alcohol.
Two doctors from Sassoon Hospital – Dr Ajay Taware, then leading the Forensic Medicine Department, and Dr Shrihari Halnor – have already been arrested for swapping blood samples.
A third person – Atul Ghatkamble, a hospital staffer – is also in custody. Two others – Ashpak Makandar and Amar Gaikwad, who acted as middlemen between the teen’s father and the doctors to facilitate financial transactions to swap the blood samples – were arrested earlier.
READ | 2 Arrested For Swapping Blood Samples In Pune Porsche Crash Case
Efforts to swap out blood samples were also done for the other two minors in the car, for which too Dr Taware was allegedly roped in; prosecutors have said he was to be paid Rs 2.5 lakh.
In their case too, the plan was to use mothers’ blood samples.
But there were complications as blood types for one boy and his mother didn’t match, and in the other case the mother too had alcohol in her blood. This led to samples being replaced with those from two males. The father of one of the accompanying minors has also been arrested.
In each case trainee doctors ordered to draw blood were told to use dry cotton instead of cotton dipped in alcohol – as is practice – to avoid possible alcohol contamination, the police had said.
Police chief Amitesh Kumar confirmed also that local cops failed to follow protocol after the accident early on May 19. “… but then we took drastic action,” he declared.
The accident occurred after the accused lost control of the Porsche and ran over a two-wheeler, killing 24-year-old software engineers Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta.
Hours earlier the boy and his friends – who were out ‘celebrating’ clearing school exams – were spotted on CCTV cameras at city pubs, where they allegedly ran up liquor bills of nearly Rs 50,000. The licence of the bar that served them has been revoked and the premises sealed.
In the days and weeks following the horrific accident there were reports that local cops sought to give preferential treatment to the boy, who is the son of an influential real estate mogul.
READ | Big Twist In Pune Porsche Crash: Cops To Probe Cops In Pizza, Burger Row
Such allegations included underplaying the tragedy in first write-ups and delaying medical examinations; the latter should have been done immediately to establish blood alcohol levels.
Days later two cops were suspended. Action was taken against Police Inspector Rahul Jagdale and Assistant Police Inspector Vishwanath Todkari for not informing their superiors – the Deputy Commissioner of Police on night duty, in this instance – about the Porsche crash.
The cops were attached to the Yerwada station, where the teen was taken after the accident.
All of this has led to the cops adding destruction of evidence, corruption, and forgery to the growing list of charges facing the teen and his family, as well as culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The teen accused – who made headlines not only for the crash but the outrageous terms of bail, which included writing an essay on road safety, granted within 15 hours of the crash – was released from a juvenile home last month.
NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.
