Pune Porsche crash: Police seek 14 days’ extension of minor’s observation home remand

The police said that if the JJB denies the extension plea, the minor will be released in the custody of a relative as his parents and grandfather are currently under arrest.

Officials at the observation home have said that as per the stipulated norms under the Juvenile Justice Act, a Social Investigation Report of the juvenile is prepared. For this, a team from the facility visits the house of the minor, talks to the family members and assesses his behavioural and psychological state.

A second report is prepared within the facility and is called the Individual Care Plan. This assessment includes examining the behavioural and psychological aspects of the minor at the observation home and interaction with other minors at the facility. Both these reports along with the report of his psychological assessment by the in-house counsellors are expected to be submitted to the JJB for consideration when the case comes for hearing on Wednesday.

Early on May 19, the juvenile was allegedly driving a Porsche car at very high speed while intoxicated when it crashed into a bike killing techies Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta. Following his detention after the accident on May 19, he was produced before the JJB in Pune on the same day. The police had sought his custody and had also appealed that he be tried as an adult.

The JJB, which consisted of just one non-judicial member on Sunday instead of its full strength of three, including one judicial member, had then rejected both applications and had granted bail to the accused on various conditions, including writing an essay, studying traffic safety norms and undergoing deaddiction counselling.

The Pune police had then challenged this order in the Pune district court which had referred the matter back to the JJB to be decided again as per the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. On May 22, the three-member JJB had remanded the minor to the observation home till June 5 with psychological and de-addiction counselling among the terms for rehabilitation and reform.

Meanwhile, the police custody remand of five people – three Sassoon General Hospital employees, including two doctors, and the parents of the minor driver — ends on Wednesday. The police will produce them in court and seek further custody for the probe into the case related to the minor’s blood sample being replaced by that of his mother’s.