In a major development in the Pune Porsche road rage case in which two IT professionals lost their lives last month, the teen driver has admitted to the Police that he was heavily drunk while driving when the accident took place, according to reports published on Sunday (2nd June) citing sources.
According to the reports, during the interrogation, which lasted over an hour (11:30 am to 12:30 pm), the teen told the Pune Police that as he was drunk at the time of the accident, he could not remember anything. According to the report, he was questioned in the presence of his mother who was arrested on Saturday (1st June). His mother, Shivani Agarwal, was arrested after it was revealed that the boy’s blood samples were replaced with hers.
Despite efforts by the officials to elicit information, the teen remained tight-lipped during questioning, said police.
A crime branch official said, “Our officials asked the minor about his location before the accident, his presence in Blak and Cosie pubs, driving the Porsche, details of the accident, tampering of evidence, collection of blood samples and medical tests. To all the questions, the minor had a single answer – that he had no memory of anything as he was drunk.”
In the initial probe, it was revealed that the minor and his friends had consumed alcohol at the two pubs where they paid a cumulative bill of Rs 48,000.
As per a Times of India report, Pune Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar stated that the minor driver’s mother told the police that the doctors at Sassoon General Hospital had asked her to give her blood as a sample instead of the boy’s.
“We have recorded the statement of the woman (49). She told us that the doctors of the hospital had told her to give her blood as sample instead of her son’s. She feigned ignorance on why the doctors told her so,” Amitesh Kumar was quoted saying in the Times of India report.
Earlier in the day, a Pune court on Sunday remanded the parents of the 17-year-old boy, Shivani Agarwal, and Vishal Agarwal, to police custody till 5th June in a case pertaining to the destruction of evidence. The minor’s parents are accused of tampering with the blood sample of the juvenile.
The major developments in the case
On 19th May, a high-speeding luxurious car struck and killed two IT professionals who were travelling on a motorbike in the Kalyani Nagar area of the city. Passers-by caught hold of the minor and handed him over to the Police after thrashing him.
Following the crash, attempts were made to establish that the teen was not drunk while driving. It was later revealed that his blood samples were swapped to support this claim.
Strikingly, CCTV footage had emerged in which the teen was seen drinking alcohol in a pub just before the crash. However, during his medical check-up at the Sassoon General Hospital, the doctors swapped his blood sample with his mother’s at the direction of his father. It was also found that the father had bribed the doctors for this.
According to the police, the parents of the minor had conspired and destroyed the evidence by going to a state-run hospital and manipulating the blood samples.
The police have registered three separate cases related to the incident. One FIR concerns the accident, another is against the bar that allegedly served liquor to the juvenile, and a third pertains to the wrongful confinement and coercion of the family driver to take the blame for the accident.
In addition to arresting the boy’s parents, the police have also detained his grandfather. Two doctors from Sassoon General Hospital and an employee have been arrested for allegedly manipulating the blood sample of the juvenile. The police have formed over a dozen teams, comprising 100 personnel, to investigate various aspects of the case.
