Did Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and the legislators belonging to his faction of NCP, particularly MLA Sunil Tingre, try to "save" the 17-year-old son of a builder, who is the suspect in the Porsche crash case, on May 19?
Soon after the 17-year-old was arrested for driving a Porsche in an inebriated state and knocking down and killing two software engineers travelling in a two-wheeler at Kalyani Nagar in Pune, MLA Sunil Tingre reportedly intervened directly.
Although, the suspect was granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board merely 15 hours after the crash after making him to write an essay on road accidents as one of the conditions, public outcry forced the police and the authorities to take action against the suspect and his kin.
The Woman and Child Development Department has formed a panel to probe whether the Juvenile Justice Board members followed the correct legal procedures while granting bail to the suspect.
According to a report, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar allegedly made a call to the Pune police commissioner seeking to "go slow" on the minor suspect after his arrest.
Ajit Pawar however denied this. He told the media that he called the police commissioner and told him that the accused boy was from a wealthy family and there was a chance police might be pressured.
The police had arrested two doctors for manipulating the blood sample of the suspect. The doctors include Dr Ajay Taware, head of the forensic department and previously the medical superintendent of Sassoon General Hospital.
It has now come to light that the appointment of Ajay Taware as medical superintendent was made based on a recommendation from Sunil Tingre.
According to Pune Mirror, Dr Taware was appointed as the medical superintendent in December 2023 after he was recommended by Sunil Tingre.
Tingre recommended him to the Minister of Medical Education, Hasan Mushrif, through a letter dated December 26, 2023.
The letter, according to the report, stated, "Dr. Ajay Taware, known to me, is a professor and head of the forensic medicine department. He performed commendable duties during the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, I request that appropriate action be taken at your level to appoint him as the medical superintendent of Sassoon."
It has been reported that acting on Dr Taware’s instructions, Dr Halnor threw the accused’s blood sample in a dustbin and replaced it with a sample taken from an unidentified person to manipulate the outcome of the test. Both the doctors have been arrested and remanded in custody.
Meanwhile, another report said that Vishal Agarwal, father of the 17-year-old suspect, called Sunil Tingre 45 times in about an hour soon after his son was arrested by the police.
Tingre reportedly received 45 missed calls from Vishal Agarwal, father of the 17-year-old suspect, between 2:30 am and 3:45 am on the day of the Pune Porsche accident in Kalyani Nagar on May 19.
The MLA had also visited the Yerwada jail on May 19 after which he told the media that he and the suspect's father are family friends. Tingre claimed that he had visited the police station to check if the probe was being properly conducted.