MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday denied bail to Vishal Agarwal, the father of the minor who was arrested in the Pune Porsche hit-and-run case for allegedly falsifying the medical and blood sample reports to save his minor son from the case.
Vishal Agarwal's minor son had killed two Madhya Pradesh engineers in the accident.
The high court also denied bail to the other seven accused in the Porches crash case, which includes Ashish Mittal, Aditya Sood, Arunkumar Singh, Ashpak Makandar, Dr Ajay Taware and Dr Shrihari Halnor.
Dr Taware and Halnor are booked for replacing the blood samples of the prime accused and the other minor accused, who were sitting on the passenger seat at the time of the accident. Taware is the head of the Forensic Medicine Department, and Halnor is the Chief Medical Officer. Makandar is the middleman who connected Vishal with Taware and Halnor for swapping the blood samples. The accused were arrested under various provisions of the then Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A single-judge bench of Bombay High Court Justice Shyam Chandak passed an order stating that the offence against the accused was serious and there was a possibility of them tampering with evidence and influencing the witnesses in the case.
The special public prosecutor for the state, Shishir Hiray, had argued that the accused fabricated the vital evidence in the case.
He further highlighted the fact that the witnesses in the case are medical students, poor persons and can be easily threatened. He also opposed the bail application of the eight accused in this case.
In the early hours of May 19, 2024, the juvenile was allegedly driving a Porsche at a very high speed in an inebriated state when the vehicle crashed into a bike, killing two software engineers — Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta- in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar.
In June this year, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to the mother of the minor accused, observing that she was behind bars for over 10 months. Last month, the SC confirmed the interim bail granted to her.
In October 2024, another bench of the HC had denied the anticipatory bail plea of the father of the minor driver’s friend and had observed that a ‘strong prima facie’ case was made out against him for swapping blood samples.
In June 2024, the Bombay HC had ordered the release of the minor accused, observing that custody or remand orders were passed in “absolutely illegal and mechanical manner”.
The HC had ordered the minor to be kept under the supervision of the paternal aunt, who was tasked to ensure compliance with the directions issued by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to rehabilitate the minor.