Pune Porsche accident: State panel to probe role of Juvenile Justice Board members

Police are in the process of obtaining two distinct sanctions from the state government in order to prosecute the three Sassoon Hospital employees

The Maharashtra Women and Child Development Commissioner has set up a four-person committee to look into the actions of two Juvenile Justice Board members and see if the proper procedures were followed when bail was granted to the adolescent suspect in the Pune Porsche crash case.

The 17-year-old boy's first bail order from the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) sparked intense public outcry since it included extremely lax requirements like writing an essay and spending 15 days assisting traffic cops. After a police appeal, it was compelled to change its ruling, placing the adolescent in an observation home until June 5, according to a News 18 report.

The state panel will now investigate whether the JJB complied with the law when it granted bail to the minor who is charged with killing two IT professionals by crashing his fancy car into their motorbike. The investigation will focus on the two state-appointed board members.

Accused was driving car in an inebriated state, friend tells police

The minor accused in the horrifying crash was driving the high-end vehicle at the time of the tragedy, according to a friend of the accused teenager. He said that the 17-year-old was drunk at the time of the collision, India Today reported, citing Pune Police sources.

After almost six hours of interrogation, the juvenile accused's friend recorded a statement at the Pune Crime Branch office, according to the report. In their previous comments, other friends of the accused teenager stated that the youngster was indeed the driver of the automobile and not anybody else.

The declaration supports the account provided by Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar, who previously indicated in a press conference that efforts had been taken to show that the kid was not driving the Porsche at the time of the collision. An attempt was made to imply that Gangaram, the driver for the Agarwal family, was engaged in the collision.

Gangaram also claimed, in his police testimony, that it was he and not the teenager who was driving. The grandfather of the youngster is said to have threatened the family's driver.

Early on May 19, in the Kalyani Nagar neighbourhood of Pune, two IT workers died when their motorbike was struck by the speeding Porsche.

14 calls between minor's father and doctor 

The father of the accused contacted Dr Ajay Taware, the director of the forensic medicine department at the state-run Sassoon hospital, at least 14 times over the phone.

The talks occurred during the process of gathering samples for analysis, thus the police assume that the calls had to do with the "change of blood sample".

The minor's blood samples, which were taken following the May 19 accident, were purportedly thrown away by Dr Taware, along with hospital staff member Atul Ghatkamble and chief medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor. Instead, the samples were substituted with another person's blood, which did not contain any alcohol.

The blood report is a crucial piece of evidence because the police assert that the adolescent had been to two bars before the event. Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar has said that the 20-hour lapse between the collision and sample collection is the reason why the minor's second sample tested negative for alcohol.

An early morning FIR was filed at Yerwada Police Station against the minor following the deaths of Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta in the pre-dawn collision on May 19. At about 11am, he was brought to Sassoon Hospital, where a blood sample was obtained. About 6pm, the second sample was taken.