NEW DELHI, May 31: Friends of the minor who was driving the Porsche car in Pune involved in the midnight accident killing two budding software engineers in their twenties, have spill the beans.
Two friends of the 17-year old boy, who were in the car, have told the police that the minor was drunk when he was driving the car. He was driving the car at around 200 kilometre per hour speed when it hit the bike in which the techies were travelling, police said on Friday.
The force of the impact meant Aneesh Awadhiya who was driving the bike and Ms Ashwini Koshta – IT professionals from Madhya Pradesh – were flung into parked cars and into the air. She died on the spot while he died in a hospital.
Witnesses had earlier also said the boy seemed to be “heavily drunk” when detained by an angry crowd that formed after the incident. There were reports the boy was assaulted by the crowd.
In the hours and days after the horrific incident – which Mr Awadhiya family has called “murder” – CCTV footage from a city bar showed the boy and his friends draped over a table laden with bottles of alcohol. The bar owner and staff were arrested and questioned for serving liquor to a minor.
The minimum legal drinking age in Maharashtra is 25.
Questions have been asked about the boy’s blood alcohol level, particularly after confirmation of lapses of protocol by the arresting cops, two of whom have been suspended. The lapses included not taking the teen – the son of a prominent city real estate mogul – for an immediate blood test.
Further investigation has revealed two doctors and a ward boy at the state-run Sassoon Hospital – where the teen was finally taken, hours after the accident and he had been given water to drink (which could dilute the alcohol level) – may have manipulated the tests by altering the samples.
The teen’s blood sample were believed to had been swapped for one of three others collected for the purpose, including his mother, sources said. The boy’s actual blood sample was found in a dustbin in the hospital.
Dr Ajay Tawade and Dr Srihari Harnor will remain in police custody till Wednesday, as will the ward boy, who allegedly handed over the Rs three lakhs paid to the doctors by the teen’s family for altering the blood samples so that he was not found drunk. Dr Harnor is the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer and Dr Tawade the head of its forensic department.
The Pune teen was arrested after the incident but released on bail within 15 hours, triggering widespread outrage, particularly over bail conditions that included writing a 300-word essay. The Juvenile Justice Board later modified its order and sent him to a remand home. The outrage has also led to scrutiny of the board; two state-appointed members, including Dr LN Danwade, who released the boy, will be investigated by the Women and Child Department. The boy has been charged with drunk driving.
(Manas Dasgupta)
