Porsche crash: Court sends doctors who changed minor's blood samples to police remand till May 30 (2nd Ld)

Pune, May 27 (IANS) A Pune court magistrate A.A. Pande on Monday remanded two doctors of a government hospital and a peon to police custody till May 30 (Thursday) for alleged tampering of the blood samples of a minor boy whose Porsche car killed two techies. 

The medicos are -- Sassoon Hospital's Head of Forensics Department, Dr. Ajay Taware and Blood Bank head, Dr. Shrihari Halnor, besides a peon Atul Ghatkamble, who was the alleged conduit for the illegal gratification in the matter.

Arguing for police remand, the police said that they wanted to investigate the hospital records, mobile phone details and other connected aspects, but accused Dr. Taware's lawyer Jitendra Sawant and others argued strongly against the police custody.

Marking a sensational twist, Pune Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar said earlier on Monday that the blood samples analysed by the Sassoon Hospital did not match with the minor accused in the Porsche car crash.

Kumar said that the purported blood sample of the 17-year-old who was caught in the car crash, was "thrown in the dustbin" and the blood sample analysed was of a 'third person', which is being probed now.

The shocking details emerged barely hours after the Pune Police raided and arrested the senior doctors and the peon of the Sassoon Hospital for allegedly 'tampering' with the minor accused's blood report.

"We had taken a second blood sample which was given to another hospital for analysis with the intention of carrying out a DNA test later. Now, it has come to light that the Sassoon Hospital blood forensic report was of some other person," Kumar told mediapersons.

Kumar said that Vishal A. Agarwal (the accused's father) had telephoned Dr. Taware on WhatsApp which is being probed, and the police now have sufficient technical evidence in the matter to prepare a water-tight case against all the accused.

The three accused have been shunted to police custody for three days, as the charges of manipulating the crucial blood samples of the 17-year-old boy and submitting a fake blood test report could directly impact the prosecution case and the direction of the police investigation.

"I shall repeat… our case does not rest on the blood samples. The minor boy was in his full senses and aware of the consequences of drinking and driving the car at high speed," reiterated Kumar.

The 'clean chit' in the blood test report of the accused minor boy, the son of a prominent realtor Vishal S. Agarwal, had sparked a huge row as it enabled him to get off on bail within 15 hours of the fatal May 19 crash in Kalyani Nagar area.

In the same case, Vishal S. Agarwal, who was sent to judicial custody for 14 days, was booked in a case pertaining to the tampering of evidence, confining, luring and threatening driver Gangaram Poojari to take the blame for the accident, but he refused and has become a prime prosecution witness.

The fatal crash claimed the lives of two IT engineers -- Ashwini Koshtha and her friend Aneesh Awadhiya -- both 24, and hailing from Madhya Pradesh.

The minor boy is currently lodged in a Juvenile Correctional Home in Pune. His father is in judicial custody while his grandfather Surendra Kumar Agarwal is in police custody in the same case that has sparked a nationwide furor.

So far, at least 9 persons have been arrested in the Porsche case, including three generations of the Agarwal family.

They are -- the 17-year-old boy, his father Vishal S. Agarwal, his grandfather Surendra Kumar Agarwal, the two doctors, a peon, the three owners-managers of the pub and bar where the boy and his friends had partied on Saturday-Sunday night -- while two cops of Yerwada Police Station, PI Rahul Jagdale and API Vishwanath Todkari have been suspended for alleged dereliction of duty and other lapses pertaining to the accident, as public anger continues to simmer.

--IANS

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