The Pune police on Friday suspended two officers attached to the city’s Yerwada Police Station for dereliction of duty in connection with Porsche car accident in which a drunken minor killed two persons on May 19.
Authorities said that Police Inspector Rahul Jagdale and Assistant Police Inspector Vishwanath Todkari had reportedly ‘mishandled’ the investigation and failed to inform the wireless control room about the accident in time.
The action comes amid widespread citizen outrage and aspersions cast by both the public and Opposition leaders of the workings of the police machinery in the accident, which involved the family of a prominent realtor.
Earlier today, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar revealed that attempts had been made to tamper evidence on part of the father of the 17-year-old, whose drunken driving of a Porsche car had knocked down and killed two persons even as a local court sent the father, a city-based realtor, to a 14-day judicial custody.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Kumar said that attempts had been made by the realtor to destroy evidence in order to show that the vehicle – a grey Porsche Taycan - was not being driven by his son but by a driver employed by the teenager’s family.
“Soon after this incident, the driver had claimed that he was driving the car and not the accused minor. We are investigating under whose pressure the driver made such a statement,” Mr. Kumar said, adding that the CCTV footage clearly showed the teenager driving the car and that soon after the crash, an attempt was made [by the family of the accused minor] to switch drivers so that the minor would not land in trouble.
The Police Commissioner reiterated that the minor committed the accident under the influence of alcohol but “was in his full senses.”
Mr. Kumar said the police’s case was not dependent on the blood report alone as they had the CCTV footage of accused drinking liquor in the pub.
“It was not as if all of them [the minor and his friends] were so drunk that they could not understand anything. They had full knowledge that due to their conduct, an incident like this was possible. After the accident, the accused was taken to Sassoon Hospital for a medical examination. His blood samples were taken around 11 a.m. [on May 19]. While there is a lapse in the time of collection of blood samples, the police’s case under Section 304 (culpable homicide) is not dependent on the blood report… To ensure this blood report is not tampered with, as a precaution another blood sample was taken in the evening for DNA sampling,” he said.
The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Wednesday, in a revised judgement had cancelled the bail of the accused 17-year-old whose speeding luxury car had killed two IT employees in their mid-20s in the city’s upmarket Kalyani Nagar area on May 19.
The minor has been sent to an observation home till June 5.
Meanwhile, the mother of the accused has appealed to the police to ‘protect’ her son after a video purportedly featuring him, boasting about how he got away with the accident, went viral.
In a video message, the teen’s mother stressed that the clip was fake and not of her son.
The video, which features a rap song purportedly featuring the teenager arrogantly boasting about how he got away with the car crash and replete with expletives, was later deemed ‘fake’ by the police.
