Two doctors from Sassoon General Hospital in Pune have been arrested for allegedly manipulating the blood sample of a teenage driver involved in a Porsche accident, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar announced on Monday.
Dr. Ajay Taware, Head of the Forensics Department, and Dr. Shrihari Harnor, Chief Medical Officer, were taken into custody for tampering with blood reports and evidence related to the case, according to Kumar.
The incident is currently under investigation by the crime branch.
The arrests of the doctors followed the suspension of an inspector and another officer from the Yerwada police station for delaying the report of the offense and failing to promptly conduct a medical examination of the teenager at the accident scene.
Police stated that the teenager was intoxicated at the time of the accident. Initially granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board with a requirement to write an essay on road safety, the teenager was later sent to an observation home until June 5 after public outrage and a police review application.
The teenager’s father, Vishal Agarwal, a realtor, and his grandfather, Surendra Agarwal, have also been arrested in connection with the accident.
The grandfather was arrested last Saturday on charges that both he and the teenager’s father pressured their family driver to take the blame for the accident, offering him money and issuing threats.
Surendra Agarwal was detained for the illegal confinement of the driver and was remanded in police custody until May 28. The minor’s father, already in judicial custody for another case related to the May 19 accident, was also named in the FIR. “After the accident, the driver initially claimed he was driving, but it was later revealed that the teen was behind the wheel,” said Amitesh Kumar.
After the driver left the Yerwada police station, Vishal Agarwal and his grandfather allegedly took him to their bungalow, confiscated his phone, and confined him there, Kumar explained.
“He was pressured to give a statement to police according to their directions,” Kumar said, adding that the driver was offered gifts and cash to take the blame for the accident and was also threatened.
The Agarwal family offered the driver “any amount he quoted,” the commissioner stated, noting that the driver’s wife eventually freed him the next day.
“The driver was frightened. He was summoned, and his statement was recorded on Thursday (May 23). After corroborating the facts, an offense was registered against the juvenile’s father and grandfather,” Kumar said.
Vishal Agarwal and his father have been booked under sections 365 (kidnapping) and 368 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code. Police will seek Vishal’s custody in the case on Monday.
Previously, a local politician had accused Surendra Agarwal of having connections with gangster Chhota Rajan.
Defense lawyer Prashant Patil opposed the police custody, arguing that the driver was in the car at the time of the accident and was not wrongfully confined.
“Due to the outcry over the incident, the driver chose to go to the servant quarters at the accused’s bungalow on his own and stayed there until the next day. There was no question of the driver being threatened,” Patil claimed.
