Juvenile's mother arrested for swapping blood samples in Pune Porsche accident case
Mumbai: The Pune Police Crime Branch on Saturday arrested the mother of the teen accused of killing two IT professionals in a drunk driving accident on May 19. The mother is accused of swapping blood samples in an attempt to prove that her son wasn’t drunk when the incident took place. She is the fourth family member to be arrested in the case after the minor accused, his father and grandfather.
The police informed that the mother, Shivani Agarwal, was detained on Saturday morning from her residence. Later, she was taken to the observation home, where the police interrogated her son in her presence.
“The juvenile was asked about his visits to bars and his locations before the accident, about him driving the car, about the accident and what happened at Sassoon Hospital. But we found his answers evasive,” a police officer informed.
The police have also arrested two doctors and a peon of the government-run Sasoon hospital for manipulating the blood samples of the minor accused. The police suspect that the juvenile's mother’s blood samples were sent to the forensic lab by the doctors.
A senior Crime Branch official said the initial probe into the blood sample swap included the location of the juvenile's mother, technical evidence, CCTV footage and statements of several persons. The police will get her DNA matched with the swapped blood sample at Sassoon Hospital.
“Since the evidence against the juvenile’s mother was strong, she was arrested. Our aim is to make the case watertight,” the officer said.
Two IT professionals were killed in the early hours of May 19 in Kalyani Nagar in Pune after a Porsche allegedly being driven by the minor, who the police claim was drunk, rammed into their two-wheeler. The minor’s father, realtor Vishal Agarwal, and grandfather Surendra Agarwal have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping the family’s driver and putting pressure on him to take the blame. They were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days on Friday after their police remand ended.
