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The Pune city police have arrested two senior doctors of the government-run Sassoon General Hospital for allegedly changing the blood sample of the minor boy, who allegedly knocked down and killed two young engineers while driving a Porsche car on May 19 under the influence of alcohol.
Those arrested are Dr Ajay Taware, head of the hospital’s forensic medicine department, and Dr Shrihari Harnol, confirmed Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar on Monday.
Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta were killed after the speeding Porsche allegedly being driven by the 17-year-old boy hit their motorcycle at Pune’s Kalyani Nagar junction early on May 19. People present at the accident spot thrashed the boy and handed him over to the police. The First Information Report (FIR) against him was lodged around 8 am at the Yerwada police station. The boy then was taken to Sassoon Hospital for a medical examination where his blood samples were taken around 11 am.
Pune police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar admitted a lapse in time of collection of blood samples. During their probe, the police also found that doctors at Sassoon Hospital allegedly changed the minor accused’s blood sample while sending it for a forensic test to measure the alcohol content of his blood. However, the Pune city police, as a preventive measure, had taken another sample of the boy in the evening on the same day (May 19), for DNA sampling, the police commissioner had said.
Initially, Section 304 (a) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for negligence was invoked against the boy while lodging the FIR. Later, the police added the stringent Section 304 of the IPC for culpable homicide against him. Section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act, for drunk and driving offences, was added in this FIR against the minor boy on May 21, two days after the accident took place.
On May 19, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which at the time had one non-judicial member instead of its full strength of three, granted bail to the boy on various conditions, including writing an essay, studying traffic safety norms, and undergoing deaddiction counselling. On May 22, after the controversy snowballed, the JJB sent him to an observation home until June 5.
On May 24, two officers of the Yerwada police station — Inspector Rahul Jagdale and Assistant Police Inspector Vishwanath Todkari — were suspended for allegedly mishandling the investigation into the Porsche crash case and failing to inform the wireless control room and senior officers about the accident in time.
The police have also arrested the minor accused’s realtor father and his grandfather in connection with the Pune Porsche crash case.