Pune Porsche crash: Grandfather of minor arrested; police say he told driver to take blame, promised him reward

Pune City Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said the driver was told he would be rewarded if he took the blame for the incident and threatened with dire consequences if he did not agree.

A separate FIR was lodged in this case at the Yerawada police station early in the early hours of Saturday under IPC Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).

As per the FIR, the 42-year-old complainant said that he was returning home from the police station on the intervening night of May 19 and May 20 when the minor’s grandfather allegedly forced him to sit in a BMW car.

The grandfather allegedly took the driver to their bungalow where he and the father of the minor boy “snatched” the driver’s mobile phone and “confined” him. Both then allegedly told the driver to take the blame for the Porsche car accident, the FIR stated. The minor’s father, who is in judicial custody, has also been booked in this case. A city court sent the minor’s grandfather to police custody till May 28.

“He (driver) was taken to the accused’s home… his cell phone was taken away and he was confined to the house. He was asked not to speak to anyone or go anywhere. He was pressured to give the police a statement as per the family’s wish,” Kumar said, adding that the driver was promised rewards “as per his wish” if he took the blame.

“When the driver failed to reach home, his wife reached the residence of the accused on Monday, created a ruckus and took him away with her. The driver was brought to the Crime Branch Thursday and his claims were corroborated,” Kumar said.

But when police produced the grandfather before judicial magistrate (first class) S G Barde on Saturday, he told the court that at the time of accident he was in Delhi and came to Pune by flight after finding out about the incident.

Senior police inspector Krantikumar Patil, however, told the court that the driver’s clothes were found at the accused’s bungalow.

Patil said custody of the accused was required to recover the driver’s cell phones snatched by him and the car used for kidnapping. “CCTV video obtained from the accused’s house has been tampered… There were four FIRs against the arrested accused in the past, two at Kondhwa police station, one at Bundgarden and Mahabaleshwar police station each,” he said.

The prosecution lawyer said custodial interrogation of the accused was also needed for looking into his phone call details.

Defence lawyer Prashant Patil argued that the driver was in the Porsche at the time of accident and was not kidnapped but had gone to the servant’s quarters, inside the accused’s bungalow.

Patil said custody of the accused grandfather was not needed because he has been with police daily for about 12 hours since the day of the accident. “He is 77 years old and suffering from serious medical problems.. He has been acquitted in the Mahabaleshwar case,” the lawyer said. But the court remanded the grandfather in police custody till May 28.

On Friday, police chief Amitesh Kumar had said that after the accident, there was an attempt by the minor’s father to show that it was the driver and not his son who was behind the wheel of the Porsche car at the time of the accident. “So we are exploring the option of applying Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code for destroying evidence,” he had said.

Kumar also said that the driver had initially said that he was driving the Porsche car and a probe was on to see if he made the statement under pressure. The police are now probing if the minor’s grandfather played any role in pressuring the driver to falsely claim that he was driving the car.

Police also said they have checked the records at the security cabin of the minor’s residence, which showed that he had taken the car while leaving the house. Police have seized the CCTV footage from the minor’s house.

3rd FIR linked to Porsche accident

The FIR lodged Saturday is the third one related to the May 19 episode, when the speeding Porsche with no plates hit the motorcycle of Aneesh Awadhiya and his friend Ashwini Koshta, both of them engineers.

The 17-year-old boy, who is now in an observation home till June 5, was allegedly driving the luxury car in an inebriated state.

Following the mishap, at 2.30 am, people at the spot beat him up and handed him over to police.

An FIR was then lodged against the boy boy at the Yerwada police station on May 19 under sections 304, 304 (a), 337, 338, 427, 279 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 184, 119/177 of the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA).

The minor, who was initially granted bail on the same day by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), on conditions like he should “write an essay of 300 words” on road accidents. Police further invoked section 185 of MVA against him and filed a review application against the bail granted to the boy. JJB then sent to an observation home till June 5.

Based on information obtained from the minor boy, the police lodged the second FIR on May 20 against his father and six others, including the owner and managers of two restaurants in Pune city where liquor was allegedly served to the minor boy and his friends before the accident.

The police also arrested the minor’s father for allegedly giving him a car without number plates and money despite knowing that he drinks and was a minor without a driving licence. In this offence, the police also arrested five employees of the two restaurants, for serving liquor to the minor boy.

The police booked them under sections 75 and 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act and sections of the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA). The police further invoked Section 420 of IPC against the minor’s father for allegedly cheating the government by non-payment of fees of Rs 1,759 at the Pune RTO for registration of the Porsche car. The police also invoked Section 5/180 of MVA and Section 65(e) of the Maharashtra Prohibition Act in this case. A special court remanded the minor’s father and five personnel of two restaurants to judicial custody till June 7. Now the father is again booked in the third FIR along and is likely to be arrested in this case again.