Minor’s father in custody for driver kidnapping; committee to investigate blood sample manipulation at Sassoon Hosp

Pune: A Pune court on Tuesday remanded the father of a juvenile allegedly involved in the Porsche car crash in police custody till May 31 in a case of alleged kidnapping and wrongful confinement of the family driver.

The court also extended the police custody of the juvenile’s grandfather till May 31 in the same case. Both the accused were produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class A A Pande. They have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 365 (kidnapping) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement).

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 in the Kalyani Nagar area of Pune city. The police claim the teenager was drunk at the time of the accident. The juvenile’s father, realtor Vishal Agarwal (50), is already in judicial custody in a case registered against him and the managers and owners of two pubs under the Juvenile Justice Act. The police have alleged that Vishal Agrawal and his father Surendra Agrawal (77) pressure on the driver to take the blame for the accident by offering him money and giving him threats.

Surendra Agrawal was arrested in this connection on May 25 and then remanded in police custody till May 28.

A court here on Monday allowed the police to take Vishal Agrawal’s custody in connection with the case of kidnapping and wrongful confinement of their driver. The police subsequently took his custody from the Yerwada Central Prison and arrested him in that case. A three-member committee conducting inquiry into alleged manipulation of the blood samples of the juvenile driver involved in the Porsche car crash visited the Sassoon General Hospital here on Tuesday. Police have arrested Ajay Taware, head of the state-run hospital’s forensic medicine department, chief medical officer Shrihari Halnor and staff member Atul Ghatkamble in connection with the incident.

“We will examine the sequence of events after the accident. The probe will be conducted as per the rules and a report will be submitted to the government,” said Pallavi Sapale, dean of the Grant Medical College who is heading

the panel.