Pune car crash case: Teen driver’s mother arrested for evidence tampering
Earlier she appealed to the police to protect her son as the circulated video of the accident does not depict him
The minor boy on May 19 was allegedly driving the Porsche at high speed under the influence of alcohol when the car crashed into two software engineers who were on a bike, killing them.
The 49-year-old mother of the juvenile accused in Pune’s Porsche accident case Saturday became the third person from his family — after his father and grandfather — to be arrested by the police. She is accused of giving her blood to be swapped with that of her 17-year-old son, which had been collected after the incident to test for alcohol.
Police had earlier arrested Dr Ajay Taware, the former head of the Forensic Medicine Department at the state-run Sassoon Hospital; Dr Shrihari Harnol, who was the Casualty Medical Officer (CMO) at the time; and Atul Ghatkamble, a staffer at the morgue, for allegedly changing the minor’s blood sample in return for financial favours. The trio have since been placed under suspension.
Police also interrogated hospital nurses, leading to the revelation of Ms. Agarwal’s role in the blood sample-swapping incident. As per the sources, police will produce Ms. Agarwal in court around 2 p.m. and demand seven days of police custody for further investigation.
On Saturday, police also took custody of the 50-year-old realtor father of the teenager, who was already in judicial remand for another case, to investigate the alleged swapping of the blood sample. The teenager’s parents are scheduled to appear before a court in Pune on Sunday, where the police will seek their custody for further investigation, including their joint interrogation.
The juvenile’s 77-year-old grandfather, who leads the family-run real estate group, is accused of abducting the driver who was with the minor at the time and coercing him to take the blame for the Pune car accident that killed two software engineers, Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta. The grandfather is currently in judicial custody.
A senior officer said the mother was detained on Saturday morning from the family home. She was taken to the observation home, where her son was questioned by the investigation team in her presence.
A senior officer who is part of the probe said, “The investigation team mainly asked him questions about his visits to bars and his locations before the accident, about him driving the car, about the accident and what happened at Sassoon Hospital. The juvenile did not give very definitive answers. The mother was later taken to the crime branch office for questioning.”
Police said her DNA sample will be collected so it can be matched with the swapped sample at Sassoon Hospital.
The investigation officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sunil Tambe, said, “The report from the regional forensic sciences laboratory suggested the swapped blood sample belonged to a woman. Further questioning of the arrested accused and technical leads suggested that the minor’s sample was in fact swapped with his mother’s. Investigation has now revealed that the father and mother of the juvenile conspired with the two doctors and a staffer at Sassoon Hospital to swap the sample.”
Another officer involved in the probe said, “Investigation suggests the blood sample of the mother was taken around the same time as the minor’s. These samples were collected in the chamber of the CMO, which is not under CCTV surveillance.” another officer said.
