Father claims his driver was behind wheels when Pune accident took place

Mumbai: Even four days after the Pune accident in which a drunk minor killed two IT professionals, the police are yet to receive the blood report of the accused which is vital to prove the drunk driving case. However, Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar on Thursday said that they do not need to establish the alcohol level in the blood report and the CCTV footage from pubs and payment receipts are enough to establish the culpable homicide charge in the case.

On the same day, the father of the minor accused told the investigators that his family driver was behind the wheels, and not his son, when the accident took place. The juvenile’s two friends, who were with him at the time of the accident, have also supported his claims.

According to the police case, the son of the real estate developer Vishal Agarwal, was driving a Porsche car at a high speed under the influence of alcohol and fatally knocked down Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, who were software engineers from Madhya Pradesh working in Pune. After the father’s claim, the police are now questioning the driver.

There was a national outrage after the Juvenile Justice board released the minor accused on bail within a few hours of the accident on May 19 and asked him to write an essay on road accidents and their solutions.

On May 19 itself, the police submitted an application before the JJB seeking permission to try the boy as an adult. As the application was rejected, they have moved the Pune district court, which has referred the matter back to the board, to be decided again as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. The arguments on the plea did not take place on Wednesday, but the application was taken on the record, officials said. The board is expected to rule on it after completing formalities under the juvenile justice act.

The police are also under pressure because of the suspicion that their initial investigation was not upto the mark. They have taken two blood samples of the minor and yet to receive the reports. There are also allegation against the police that the test second blood sample, which was taken more than four hours after the accident, was not necessary and its results could dilute the case.

However, the Pune police commissioner said that the report of alcohol content in the blood of the minor boy was not important for the investigation. “our case is that he (minor boy) was in full senses and was having knowledge that his act of consuming liquor and then driving a car at high speed in a narrow lane can cause deaths of people,” he said.

The police claim to have evidence of liquor consumption against the minor boy, which includes CCTV footage and bills from two restaurants where he had allegedly consumed alcohol along with his friends before the accident.

On Wednesday, the Juvenile Justice Board of Pune sent the minor boy to an observation home till June 5.

Meanwhile, the police also called the grandfather of the juvenile for questioning. The grandfather, who had started the family’s construction company, had stood surety for granting bail to the 17-year-old. He was earlier chargesheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for contracting gangster Chhota Rajan in 2009 to kill a local politician.

The police have also arrested the boy’s father for allegedly giving him a car without number plates and money despite knowing that he drinks. The police have also arrested the owners and managers of the two Pune restaurants, Cosie and Blak, where liquor was allegedly served to the minor boy before the accident.