In a major development in the Porsche car crash case, two senior doctors and an employee from the State-run Sassoon Hospital have been arrested for allegedly "tampering" with the blood samples of the minor accused in the case.
The arrests of the two doctors — Dr Ajay Taware, Head of the Forensics Department, Dr Shrihari Halnor the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital and Atul Ghatkamble, an employee who works under Dr Taware — came after the police established that the blood samples tested at the Sassoon Hospital did not match with that of the accused Porsche car crash.
The three arrested persons — including two doctors — were on Monday produced before Pune's Judicial Magistrate First Class (Small Causes) AA Pande, who remanded them in police custody till May 30.
Dr Taware, Dr Halnor and Atul have been charged with the alleged "manipulation" of blood samples and destruction of evidence in the case
While seeking police custody of the three persons, the police told the court that some financial transactions had taken place to "tamper" with the blood samples and they needed to search the homes of the 17-year-old accused in connection with it.
The police told the court that the juvenile's blood samples were thrown into a dustbin and replaced with the blood samples of another person on the instructions of Dr Taware.
It may be recalled that in the small hours of May 19, the 17-year-old boy — after partying with his friends at a Pune bar — who had driven off in his Porsche car in his inebriated state at a speed of some 200 kmph and rammed into a motorcycle killing killing Ashwini Koshta and Aneesh Awadhiya (both aged 24 years) who were returning home after a reunion with friends.
Earlier, talking to media persons after the arrest of the two doctors, Pune Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said on Monday: "The blood samples analysed at the Sassoon Hospital did not match that of the minor accused in the mishap case The blood samples belong to a 'third person' . We are investigating the matter".
"We had taken a second blood sample of the minor accused which we had given to another hospital for analysis with the intention of carrying out a DNA test later. Now, we have come to know that the Sassoon Hospital blood forensic report was of some other person," Kumar said.
The arrest of two senior doctors should be seen in the context of the fact that the blood report of the accused minor boy, son of Pune's prominent builder Vishal S Agarwal had given a clean chit to the accused boy prompting Pune"s Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to grant him a bail on May 20, a day after the ghastly mishap.
The incident had triggered massive protests in Pune so much so that a chastened the Pune JJB -- which had earlier granted bail to the minor -- revised its order on May 22 and remanded him to Observation Home till June 5.
The juvenile boy, involved in the mishap, is currently lodged in a Juvenile Correctional Home in Pune, his father Vishal Agarwal is in judicial custody.
The boy's grandfather Surendra Kumar Agarwal -- who was arrested on Saturday for allegedly threatening and confining the family driver Gangaram Poojari and forcing him to take the blame for the Porsche car accident on his head in return for a monetary consideration - is in the police custody in the same case. Poojari is a witness in the case.
