'Pune Porsche crash accused won't be tried as adult': Juvenile Justice Board rejects police plea

Pune Porsche Case

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) rejected the Pune Police's request on Tuesday to try a 17-year-old boy as an adult in the Pune Porsche case, which resulted in the deaths of two people last year.

At the time of the incident, the boy was driving the Porsche while intoxicated, leading to the deaths of two IT professionals, Anish Awadhiya and his friend Ashwini Costa, on May 19 in the Kalyani Nagar area.

The Pune Police had been seeking to have the accused tried as an adult for over a year, stating that he committed a "heinous" act by not only killing two individuals but also attempting to tamper with evidence.

On Tuesday, the Juvenile Justice Board, according to the defence counsel, rejected the police’s plea to treat the boy as an adult. Following the accident, the teenager was granted bail just hours later, with lenient conditions that included writing a 300-word essay on road safety.

This leniency sparked nationwide outrage, prompting a subsequent decision to place him in an observation home in Pune three days later.

On June 25, 2024, the Bombay High Court ordered his immediate release, stating that the Juvenile Justice Board’s decision to remand him to an observation home was illegal and emphasising that juvenile laws must be fully implemented.