The two accused doctors in the Pune Porsche incident were reportedly offered Rs 3 lakh for replacing the teen driver’s blood samples with another person’s samples that showed no traces of alcohol, police said on Tuesday.
Ajay Taware, head of Sassoon General Hospital’s forensic medicine department, and Shrihari Halnor, the chief medical officer, were arrested by the Pune Police on Monday for allegedly manipulating the blood samples of the teen.
The hospital peon, Atul Ghatkamble, who works under Taware, was later arrested. They were remanded in police custody until May 30.
Two young IT professionals were killed after their motorcycle was hit by a speeding Porsche allegedly driven by the 17-year-old boy in the early hours of May 19 in Kalyani Nagar area of Pune city. The police claim the teen was drunk at the time of the accident.
The Maharashtra government has established a three-member committee to probe the incident.
In an order issued on May 27 by Medical Education Commissioner Rajiv Nivatkar, Pallavi Sapale, dean of Grant Medical College and JJ Group of Hospitals, has been appointed chairperson of the committee.
The committee also includes Gajanan Chavan, professor of the forensic medicine department at Grant Medical College, and Sudhir Chowdhary, special duty officer at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar Government Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital.
“A committee has been formed including me… We have to investigate the incident that happened in Sassoon Hospital regarding the Kalyani Nagar incident. We have to find out whether it was carried out according to the rules or not… We will submit the report to the government…” Sapale told ANI.
Meanwhile, some reports also claimed links of the grandfather of the juvenile to underworld don Chhota Rajan.
“The police are investigating all claims related to the incident, including the possible links to the underworld,” Mumbai Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters.
The police has arrested the teen driver’s father and builder Vishal Agarwal (50), Cosie Pub owner Naman Prahlad Bhutada (25), manager Sachin Ashok Katkar (35), Blak Pub owner Sandeep Ramesh Sangle (35), employee Nitesh Dhanesh Shewani (34) and manager Jayesh Satish Gawkar (23), in the case.
The Pune police also suspended two officers due to delays in performing their duties during the initial stages of the accident. Police inspector Rahul Jagdale and assistant police inspector Vishwanath Todkari have been suspended pending investigation. They failed to report the incident to wireless in a timely manner.
Initially, the Yerwada police investigated the matter, but it was later transferred to the crime branch.
D L Dhanwade, a member of the Pune Juvenile Justice Board, had granted bail to the minor accused on a Sunday, a non-working day for the board. This move bypassed the standard protocol requiring two members to be present for a hearing.
Due to his age of 17 years and 8 months, he was granted bail on the condition that he write a 300-word essay on traffic rules, assist the police in traffic regulation, and abstain from alcohol. The swift granting of bail within 12-15 hours had sparked widespread outrage across the state.
The decisions of both the board and the police were widely criticized.