NEW DELHI: Police have filed a chargesheet against seven individuals in connection with the Porsche car accident case, including the parents of a minor boy who was allegedly driving, in a Pune court. This action comes more than two months after the fatal crash. The 900-page chargesheet, submitted in a sessions court, excludes the 17-year-old boy, whose case is being handled separately by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).
The seven accused have been charged under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and causing the disappearance of evidence, among others. In the early hours of May 19, a high-end car allegedly driven by a minor under the influence of alcohol struck and killed two motorbike-borne IT professionals from Madhya Pradesh, including a woman, in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area. The boy’s father, Vishal Agarwal, is a prominent builder. “We have filed a 900-page chargesheet against seven accused, including the minor’s parents, two doctors, a staffer from Sassoon General Hospital, and two middlemen, in a Pune court on Thursday,” stated Shailesh Balkawade, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).
The chargesheet accuses the boy’s parents and two Sassoon General Hospital doctors — Ajay Taware, then-HOD of the forensic medicine department, and Dr. Shrihari Halnor — along with Atul Ghatkamble, a staffer at the Maharashtra government-run medical facility, of swapping the minor’s blood samples with those of his mother after the crash to evade detection of alcohol content. Two other accused, Ashpak Makandar and Amar Gaikwad, allegedly acted as middlemen between the boy’s father and the doctors to facilitate financial transactions for the blood sample swap. The extensive police document includes statements from 50 witnesses.