Supreme Court grants bail to father of accused in Pune Porsche crash case

The accused has been accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused to swap the blood samples of the occupants of the car to allegedly save his minor son. He allegedly arranged Rs 5 lakh through his wife to bribe officials to tamper with the blood samples.

The Maharashtra government opposed his plea for parity with the other accused in the case.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for the father of one of the victims, said the case raises the question of subversion of justice. “Thousands of road accidents happen in this country every day. Many involve intoxicated drivers and minors. This case is not about the accident and death of my child. It is about subversion of justice. Immediately after the incident, there are series of phone calls made by this man as a ring leader of a conspiracy,” he contended.

The senior counsel said the driver, whom the accused had claimed had driven the car, had said that the accused had coerced him into taking the blame. He contended that the court had refused to give bail in cases involving WhatsApp messages and added that the present case is much more serious.

“In cases involving WhatsApp messages, your lordships have denied bail. This is so much more serious, 50 times more serious than that,” he said.

Justice Nagarathna said, “All this is reflection of the mindset of the Indian society. That everybody wants to get out and to get the better of the law. Now the question is, if this is a mindset of the Indian society, whether a man has to lose his liberty until he is convicted?”

The court also said it cannot deny bail just because the courts below had done so.

“These are all symptoms of the problems which are there in society. But when they come to the Supreme Court, we can’t say trial court has denied, high court has denied, we will also deny,” said Justice Nagarathna.

The court also underlined the importance of educational institutions in nurturing societal values. “What are our educational institutions doing? If this is what everybody thinks the citizenship values of the Constitution, how to face the law and being straightforward is not taught to our children,” Justice Nagarathna asked.

On May 19, 2024, engineers Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta were killed after a speeding Porsche car, allegedly driven by an inebriated 17-and-a-half-year-old from a Pune realtor’s family, rammed into their motorcycle at Kalyani Nagar junction. The subsequent police investigation unravelled alleged cover-ups, bribery, abuse of power, and tampering with blood samples at the government-run Sassoon General Hospital.