Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 24: In the first major action following outrage over alleged lapses by the police after the Pune Porsche accident in which two techies in their 20s lost their lives, an inspector and an assistant police inspector have been suspended and the case has been transferred to the Pune Police Crime Branch.
Police Inspector Rahul Jagdale and Assistant Police Inspector Vishwanath Todkari were suspended for not following the protocol of informing their superiors – the deputy commissioner of police on night duty in this instance – about the case. The cops were attached to the Yerwada police station, where the teenager was taken after the accident.
The case, which was registered at the police station, has also been taken away and assigned to the Crime Branch. The accident took place around 2.15 am on Sunday, when the 17-year-old, who had been drinking with his friends in two pubs in Pune to celebrate his Class 12 results, knocked down the two 24-year-old IT professionals in the Kalyani Nagar area. Aneesh Awadhiya, who was riding the bike was sent flying and hit a parked car, while Ashwini Koshta – who was riding pillion – was flung 20 feet into the air. Both of them died on the spot.
In a new twist to the case, the family driver, who was claimed to be the person behind the wheel in the fatal crash, has changed his statement and has now alleged that he was coerced by the teen’s father to take the blame and admit to being the driver at the time of the accident.
According to the driver, he was promised a “handsome reward” by the boy’s father if he confessed to being the person behind the wheel, police sources said.
Disclosing the information, the driver also told the police that on the day of the accident, he received a call from the minor’s father, real estate developer Vishal Agarwal, around 2:30 am.
The driver, while giving his statement to the police, has also admitted to tampering with evidence. He is currently under police protection. The minor boy involved in the deadly crash that killed two people had claimed that his family driver drove the car when the accident happened. His two friends who were with him at the time of the crash also supported his claims.
On Thursday, the boy’s father had also claimed that their family driver, employed by him, was driving the Porsche car. During questioning by the police, the driver said on the day of the incident, he had insisted on driving the car, but the teen’s father had allowed his son to take the wheel.
Speaking on whether the family tried to pressure the driver to change the narrative of the incident, Pune Police commissioner Amitesh Kumar said: “Effort was made to change the driver during that period. It is true that at the start, the driver had said he was driving the car. We are also trying to investigate under whose pressure the driver made that statement.” Kumar said there were attempts to make it appear as if the adult driver was driving the car, but that bid was foiled.
Pune police said they are trying to make a “watertight” case against all accused in the matter. “We are trying to make this a watertight case. We have already filed a case against the father of the accused and the bar owners. The technical analysis of the evidence is underway,” Kumar said.
The officer said police have the CCTV footage of the accused drinking liquor in the pub. “The point of saying this is that our case is not alone depending on the blood report we have other evidence also. He (the minor accused) was in his senses. It was not as if all of them were so drunk that they could not understand anything. They had full knowledge that due to their conduct, an incident like section 304 cab happen. There is no fact about the pizza party at the police station,” Kumar said.
On the allegation of the Agarwal family’s driver being pressured to take the blame for the accident, the officer said, “An effort was made to change the driver during that period…We are investigating this also…It is true that at the start the driver had said that he was driving the car…We are investigating this part also under whose pressure the driver made that statement we are investigating it.”
Over the allegations of any preferential treatment given to minors, the top cop said an ACP rank officer is investigating the allegations.
“On the allegations of preferential treatment given to the accused as of now, nothing has been found in the investigation…If we receive any information that the eyewitness had to face any trouble action will be taken against those police personnel as well…We have not received the blood report yet. The blood report was taken at the very first and sent to forensic…We have requested the forensic to take a DNA sample of both the samples,” he said.
Further giving details about the incident, the official said after the incident primary facie case under section 304 A was registered and later section 304 was added. “That same day we presented him to the Juvenile Justice Board and urged them to consider it as a heinous crime and treat the accused as an adult. Till the order to consider an adult is passed we wanted to keep the accused in remand observation home…Both our applications were rejected that very day…Under the Juvenile Justice Act, we registered a case against his parents and the pub owner,” he said.
About the delay in the minor’s medical examination, the officer said, “We have not received blood reports of the teen yet. We have taken two individual samples and will cross-check if both are the same.”
The boy’s grandfather and his son, who is already in police custody, were confronted as some facts related to the case needed to be corroborated, the official said. “Since the luxury car is in the name of the realty firm owned by the Agarwals, the grandfather of the minor, who is one of the owners of the firm, was questioned in regards to the ownership of the car,” he said.
A friend of the minor who was with him in the car was also questioned to verify and corroborate the sequence of events that took place in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, he added. The police, while seeking the custody of the minor’s father, had told the court on Wednesday that as the juvenile wanted to drive the car, the driver called his employer (minor’s father) and told him about his son’s demand and it was his dad who told the driver to let his son drive the car. The officer said the driver may be presented in court as a witness in the case.
Meanwhile, the cops are collecting CCTV footage of the entire route through which the car traversed – from residence to Cosie restaurant, then to Blak Club and from there to the accident spot, to see who was driving the car. A forensic team also carried out an examination of the Porsche car which was involved in the accident.
“A team today conducted the examination of the car, which is in the possession of the Yerwada police station. We have already carried out the forensic examination of the spot and now the car has also been examined. The technical aspects such as GPS, the cameras around the car were examined,” said a senior police officer.