A Pune court on Friday granted bail to Vishal Agarwal, the father of the teen accused in the Pune Porsche accident, in the Juvenile Justice Act case where he allowed his minor son to drive without a license
The teen was allegedly driving the Porsche car at very high speed in an intoxicated state on May 19, when the car crashed into a bike, killing two software engineers, Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta.
The teen's father, realtor Vishal Agarwal was also booked along with his wife Shivani in the case for their suspected role in swapping of the blood samples of the 17-year-old boy, and both of them were arrested.
The Pune Sessions Court had heard the arguments 10 days ago and granted bail on Friday.
Advocate Prashant Patil, who appeared for Vishal Agarwal, was quoted by ANI as saying, "My client has been granted bail by the Sessions Court in Pune. It is his duty to abide by the conditions imposed by the Court and shall continue to cooperate with the investigation agency."
The parents gave a bribe of Rs 3 lakh to swap his blood sample in order to hide that he was drunk-driving, the police investigation has revealed. Notably, this bribe was paid on the premises of the Juvenile Justice Board, which later ordered the release of the boy.
Vishal Agarwal had allegedly paid a bribe to Atul Ghatkamble, a ward boy at Sassoon Hospital in the premises of the Juvenile Justice Board, to swap the minor's blood sample with his mother's.
The bribe amount was accepted by Ghatkamble on the advice of Dr Ajay Taware, head of the hospital's Forensic Medicine department, and Dr Shrihari Halnor, the chief medical officer of the state-run hospital.
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report showed no alcohol in the first blood sample, which raised suspicions. Later, a second blood test was conducted at a different hospital and DNA tests confirmed the samples were from two different individuals.
Notably, the teen is in an observation home till June 25.
