Pune: It is a matter of record that the parents of the teenage driver in the Porsche Taycan crash case used their financial power to influence other (bail) applicants to achieve their target of shielding the child in conflict with law and forging valuable security (blood sample), a special court said on Thursday. Special judge UM Mudholkar rejected the bail pleas filed by the 17-year-old's parents and four others, including two suspended doctors of Sassoon General Hospital — all accused of conspiracy and manipulating the underage driver's blood alcohol test by swapping his blood sample with that of his mother's. "The statements of several witnesses would be very crucial before the court.
If they are won over by the (bail) applicants by adopting the same modes which they adopted in the replacement of blood samples, then the present case may not reach its expected legal conclusion," the judge said. The judge referred to the 900-page chargesheet filed by police and said, "It clearly shows that even before the splashes of blood of the victims lying on the road could dry, the tampering with evidence commenced and even concluded to a larger extent with the help of monetary influence or otherwise at odd hours." "Granting bail would shake the conscience of society and would send a wrong message to society.
No case is made out to release the accused on bail," the judge said. Senior lawyer Harshad Nimbalkar, representing the minor driver's parents, told TOI, "We will move the Bombay high court against the rejection of the bail pleas as our case is that the Pune police have completed their investigation and have filed a chargesheet." Two young software engineers were killed after the high-end car driven by a city-based builder's 17-year-old son hit their bike at Kalyaninagar around 2.
30am on May 19. The teenager was returning home at Wadgaon Sheri along with his two friends, also minors, in the rear seats, and his family driver, after partying with a group of friends at two pubs in Mundhwa to celebrate the completion of their Standad XII board exam. The case against the underage driver is pending before the Juvenile Justice Board.
The police had arrested his parents, Sassoon hospital's forensic science department head Dr Ajay Taware, casualty medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor and mortuary staffer Atul Ghatkamble (all three now suspended), and two middlemen – Ashfaque Makandar and Amar Gaikwad. Barring Ghatkamble, the six had applied for regular bail. Judge Mudholkar said, "Apart from documentary and electronic evidence, there are several statements of witnesses, recorded by the investigating officer, and confessional statements recorded by the judicial magistrate first class under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
" Referring to the defence argument that the possibility of tampering with evidence was nil as it was in the form of electronic and documentary evidence, the judge said, "The possibility of tampering can be nil but it cannot be treated as acceptable." "The option is to reject bail because the accused could tamper with evidence even if they are enlarged on bail with stringent conditions. It is not possible to release the accused unless evidence of some witnesses is recorded (during trial) by the court," the judge said.
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