Parents of the minor accused in the Pune car crash attempted to swap blood samples at a second hospital as well, the police told a court in the city on Tuesday, reported PTI.
The case pertains to the death of two persons after the 17-year-old boy crashed into their motorbike with his Porsche car in Pune on May 19, 2024. The minor, reportedly from the family of a prominent city realtor, was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
The first blood sample of the 17-year-old was taken at Sassoon General Hospital hours after the accident. However, the police requested another sample to be collected due to reports about possible tampering. The second sample was taken at the Aundh Government Hospital.
The alleged attempt to swap the sample at the district hospital in Aundh failed as doctors refused to tamper with it, The Indian Express reported.
The newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer as saying that the prosecution in the case has submitted additional documents to the court.
The documents showed that “the father and mother of the minor driver and middleman Ashpak Makandar had gone to the Aundh Government Hospital when the minor was taken there to collect a second blood sample…on May 19, 2024 by the police team”, the officer claimed.
“While the sample was supposed to be taken secretly, family members still learned about it, as some of them were at the Yerawada police station in the aftermath of the accident,” the officer claimed, adding that the accused attempted to “tamper” with the blood sample at the district hospital.
On May 20, 2024, both samples were sent to a forensics facility for DNA analysis.
Investigation had earlier shown that the blood samples of the 17-year-old had been swapped with his mother at Sassoon General Hospital to conceal that he was intoxicated at the time of the crash.
Ajay Taware, head of the forensic department at Sassoon General Hospital, Medical Officer Shreehari Halnor and a staffer, Atul Ghatkamble, were arrested in the matter, PTI reported.
Others who were held are the minor’s father, Makandar, and four others identified as Amar Gaikwad, Aditya Avinash Sood, Ashish Mittal and Arun Kumar Singh.
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