The Pune police on May 25 arrested the grandfather of the 17-year-old who crashed a Porsche into two 24-year-old techies, Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, while in a state of inebriation. According to the police, the grandfather had reportedly threatened the family driver to give out a statement taking the blame for the accident. He was also threatened not to speak to anyone about it, said Pune’s Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar at a press conference.
“Before the minor’s father was arrested, he along with the juvenile’s grandfather, offered cash and gifts to their family driver who was later threatened to take all the blame for the accident. They are booked for kidnapping and wrongful confinement of the driver. The driver and his family will get police protection,” Mr. Kumar said.
The 42-year-old driver in his statement to police said that soon after the incident, the minor’s grandfather had called him and shouted at him. “He was forcibly taken to their bungalow in their BMW car where the minor’s father and grandfather snatched his mobile phone and confined him in a room. The driver was promised a cash reward only if he accepted their offer to take all the blame on himself,” Mr. Kumar informed reporters.
When the driver was first brought to the police station from the accident spot, his first statement was that he was driving the car which we did not believe, said Mr. Kumar and added, “After a preliminary inquiry, we learnt that it was the minor who was driving the vehicle. It is then we registered an offence against the accused juvenile because it was evident prima facie that he was driving the vehicle.”
A Pune court sent the minor’s grandfather to police custody till May 28 and the minor’s father, a real estate developer, to judicial custody till June 7. Both are booked under IPC sections 365 of kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person and 368 of wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement.
In a latest development in the case, the youth wing of Pune Congress has organised an essay competition outside the same pub where the juvenile had allegedly consumed alcohol with his friends. The competition will be held on Sunday morning on May 26 and the accident occurred at 2 a.m. on May 19.
“The topics include - What if my father was a builder, the side-effects of alcohol; my favourite luxury car; who killed Ashwini and Anish; and more...,” Pune’s Kasba MLA Ravindra Dhangekar, who hails from the Congress, said.
The case drew flak when within 15 hours after the accident that killed two, the Juvenile Justice Board had granted bail to the 17-year-old on one of the conditions of writing a 300-word essay on ‘Effect of road accidents and their solution’.
