The Pune Police has arrested the mother of the 17-year-old boy, who killed two persons when his car crashed into their motorbike, for allegedly swapping her blood sample with her son’s, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.
The crash took place on May 19 when the minor, reportedly from the family of a prominent city realtor, was driving a Porsche car with no number plate. He was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
On May 28, the police said they found that doctors at the Sassoon General Hospital had manipulated the minor’s blood samples collected after accident. They said the blood sample of another person was taken and sent to the forensic lab to check for alcohol content.
Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar was quoted as saying on Saturday that the minor’s blood samples were replaced with that of his mother.
Earlier, the police had arrested Ajay Taware and Shrihari Harnor, doctors at the Sassoon Hospital, for allegedly manipulating the blood samples of the 17-year-old.
According to Kumar, Harnor replaced the blood samples on directions from Taware, the head of the Forensic Medicine Department of the hospital.
The police also arrested a medical staffer who allegedly took a bribe of Rs 3 lakh from the teenager’s father and passed it on to one of the doctors, according to NDTV.
The minor’s father and grandfather are also in police custody.
The police arrested the father of the 17-year-old on May 21 under the Motor Vehicles Act for letting his son drive a car and under the Juvenile Justice Act for wilful neglect of a minor.
On May 25, his grandfather was arrested for allegedly abducting and wrongfully confining the family’s driver in an attempt to force him to claim that he was driving the Porsche when the crash happened.
The minor’s father has also been booked in the matter, registered based on a first information report filed by the driver.
The minor has been remanded to an observation home till June 5.
On Friday, the Juvenile Justice Board in Pune allowed the police to question the minor for two hours, reported The Hindu, quoting unidentified sources.
On the day of the crash, the board had granted bail to the minor, directing him to write an essay on the crash and to work with the traffic police for 15 days. The bail conditions had sparked public outrage.
After a public outcry, the board cancelled the bail on May 22.
Also read: Why is the penalty for a drunk driver killing people less severe than the punishment for murder?
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