Pune Porsche crash: SC upholds HC decision to deny anticipatory bail to father of minor involved in incident

Appearing for the appellant, Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija said there was a “media trial” going on due to which there is “prejudice” against him. The bench however said that it does not go by the prejudice surrounding a case.

Responding to a specific query from the bench, Makhija said that the appellant is “the father of the friend who was sitting at the back, who had nothing to do with” the alleged happenings. She added that “they were only partying together” and that “he was not driving”.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, who also appeared for the father, referred to the HC judgment which said that Section 464 IPC (creating false document) would apply in the case. He contended that at the most, only section 201 IPC (causing disappearance of evidence, or giving false information to screen the offender) would apply.

The SC however said “law is common to everyone. Can’t make a distinction. For these types of facts, we would not have given 20 seconds…”.

The HC had said that a ‘strong prima facie’ case was made out against the applicant and same can certainly be the basis of rejecting his pre-arrest bail plea.

“There is a strong prima facie case made out against the applicant for offence committed under Section 467 (forgery of document which purports to be valuable security) of the IPC read with Section 464 (making a false document) thereof,” the HC noted. It added that the deception was created by labelling a blood sample as that of the minor son of the applicant, while it was of a 52-year-old co-accused and the applicant was part of such a conspiracy.

The accused had approached HC after a special court in Pune rejected his plea last month.

When contacted, an officer from Pune City Police’s Crime Branch said that they were waiting for the copy of the apex court’s order in the matter. “We will study the directions of the Supreme Court and then decide further course of action towards the arrest of the co-passenger boy’s father.” the officer said.