Pune Porsche crash: Two Sassoon doctors arrested for ‘switching blood samples’

The Maharashtra police have arrested two doctors of Pune’s Sassoon Hospital for allegedly manipulating the blood report of the 17-year-old boy involved in a car crash in the city’s Kalyani Nagar that killed two motorbike-borne software engineers on May 19.

 

The teen accused was taken to Sassoon Hospital for a medical check-up after the deadly crash involving a Porsche car. According to Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar, juvenile’s blood sample was thrown into dustbin and it was replaced with another person’s sample.

 

 

Two doctors from Pune’s Sassoon General Hospital were arrested in the case of a car accident involving a juvenile, police said on Monday.

 

The arrests came after it emerged that the accused minor’s blood samples were switched with those of another person for a false negative alcohol report.

 

As per media reports, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report of the minor’s first blood sample showed no alcohol in his system, while the results of the second blood report indicated the contrary. This raised suspicions about the validity of the first report.

 

Later the DNA tests of both samples confirmed they were from different individuals, leading cops to suspect that the involvement of doctors at the government hospital in tampering of evidence. Cops arrested Dr Ajay Tawre, the head of the forensic lab at the state-run hospital, along with Dr Shri Hari Harnor, as per media reports.

 

 

The Pune Porsche crash case has been marred by controversy since the beginning. The teenager was initially granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board, which also asked him to write an essay on road accidents, but following outrage over the lenient treatment and a review application by the police, he was sent to an observation home till June 5.

 

Now, the three generations of the Agarwal family are in hot soup under various charges in the same Porsche car accident case in which the Madhya Pradesh IT engineers –Ashwini Koshtha and her friend Aneesh Awadhiya — were killed.

 

After the case gained media attention, the police also arrested the teenager’s father, realtor Vishal Agarwal, and his grandfather, Surendra Agarwal, in connection with the accident.

 

His father was booked under the Juvenile Justice Act for “exposing a child to danger” by handing over the car to him while knowing that he had no driving license, while the grandfather was arrested for the ‘illegal confinement’ of the driver.

 

Today, cops will also produce a production remand for Vishal Agrawal before the court seeking to question him and his father in the case pertaining to intimidating the driver.

 

On Friday, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told reporters that an attempt was made to establish that the Porsche was not driven by the 17-year-old, and the driver employed by his family even tried to take responsibility.

After the accident, the driver initially claimed he was driving the car, the commissioner said, adding, “Why and under whose pressure he said that will be disclosed at an appropriate time.”

 

Citing their investigation, Kumar said it had emerged that the juvenile was driving the car and they had already collected all the necessary chronological evidence.

 

“He was fully in his senses, he had full knowledge that due to his conduct, such an accident, where IPC section 304 is applicable, can happen,” the officer said. Section 304 deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The Pune police on Friday suspended two cops, including an inspector from Yerwada police station, for delayed reporting and dereliction of duty in the case.

 

Meanwhile, Pune police have also sent a notice to the youngster who made the fake rap video of the accused minor. Summons have been issued asking him to appear for an inquiry before the cops. The rapper is from Madhya Pradesh