Porsche crash case | If granted bail, accused won’t hesitate to flee like Mallya, Nirav Modi: Police to court

Of the seven chargesheeted, six accused — the parents, Dr Taware and Dr Halnor, Makandar and Gaikwad — have moved bail applications in court. Special Public Prosecutor advocate Hiray on Monday presented his concluding arguments opposing the bail applications of the six accused.

Ingale told the court, “This investigation is very vast. The sequence of events of the crime has taken place at more than six places. We have identified several crucial witnesses in the case. Many of these witnesses are afraid of coming before the investigation agency considering the background of the accused. Meanwhile, we are yet to record statements of the six crucial witnesses under CRPC Section 164(5). If the accused are granted bail, it will hamper the investigation.”

“Defence has pointed to the high stature and assets of the accused to argue that they are not flight risk. But we have seen in the cases of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi that in spite of their stature they did not appear before the investigation agencies and fled. These accused also will not hesitate to flee. Further, the defence argued that Dr Taware does not have any criminal antecedents. But he has also faced many allegations in the past including those regarding kidney transplants. A committee set up against him in case of other allegations had recommended that he be banned from performing postmortems and a high level inquiry be set up against him,” he further said.

Ingale added, “Probe has revealed that the main conspiracy was hatched at a restaurant. Subsequently Dr Taware was contacted. It has also come to light that Dr Taware told the other accused that he will never come in the spotlight but instead would operate in the background. Unlike other offences, this offence has taken place at multiple locations, including a restaurant, Sassoon hospital, Yerawada police station, premises of Juvenile Justice Board, premises of Dr Halnor among others. We have gathered witnesses from these locations, technical evidence including CCTV footage from these locations.”

The next hearing in the case is scheduled on August 14, when the defence lawyers will respond to the arguments by the prosecution. Earlier, opposing the bail pleas, Hiray argued before the court that the accused have tampered with evidence and thus tried to play with the judicial system.

Hiray informed the court that Dr Halnor had approached the medical superintendent of Sassoon hospital prior to his arrest and said Dr Taware had obtained the report regarding the blood samples from him. The medical superintendent asked Dr Halnor to submit a written communication but before he could do that he was arrested by the police.

Two IT engineers Aneesh Awadhiya and his friend Ashwini Koshta, both 24 and from Madhya Pradesh, were killed after the speeding Porsche car driven by the 17-year-old boy allegedly in an inebriated state hit their motorcycle at Pune’s Kalyani Nagar junction around 2.30 am on May 19.

Police have said that the 900-page chargesheet filed in the case is a preliminary chargesheet and that the investigation in the case has not yet concluded.