A special court in Pune has granted the police permission to question all 10 individuals accused in the controversial Porsche crash case, in which a 17-year-old juvenile allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol fatally struck two motorbike-borne IT professionals in May.
The accused include the juvenile’s parents, two doctors, and one staff member from the Sassoon General Hospital in Maharashtra, as well as two middlemen. These individuals are believed to have been involved in swapping the blood samples of the juvenile to cover up the alcohol content in his system after the accident. The court granted the police’s plea to question all the accused, who are currently lodged in Yerwada Central Prison in judicial custody.
The list of accused comprises the juvenile’s parents, two doctors from Sassoon Hospital—Dr. Ajay Taware and Dr. Shreehari Halnor—hospital staff member Atul Ghatkamble, and middlemen Ashpak Makandar and Amar Gaikwad. Additional suspects, including Aditya Avinash Sood, Ashish Mittal, and Arun Kumar Singh, have been implicated in facilitating the blood sample swaps and financial transactions related to the case.
The Fatal Incident
The incident occurred on May 19, when the 17-year-old juvenile, allegedly driving under the influence, crashed a Porsche into two motorbike-borne IT professionals in the upscale Kalyani Nagar area of Pune. The crash killed the two victims, both software professionals originally from Madhya Pradesh. The juvenile driver, whose father is a prominent real estate developer, was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the crash.
The police investigation revealed a disturbing twist in the case—blood samples of the juvenile were allegedly replaced at Sassoon Hospital to cover up the presence of alcohol in his system. Dr. Shreehari Halnor, who was the chief medical officer at the time, and Dr. Ajay Taware, allegedly swapped the juvenile’s blood sample with that of his mother, ensuring that the alcohol content in his blood was undetected.
Furthermore, the investigation uncovered that blood samples of two other minors, who were with the juvenile during the accident, were also swapped. These actions were allegedly facilitated by the middlemen, Makandar and Gaikwad, who acted as intermediaries between the juvenile’s parents and the doctors to arrange for the financial transactions required for the blood swap.
During the investigation, police found it necessary to question all 10 accused to explore the financial transactions involved in the blood swap and to determine if there was any inducement or pressure applied to the doctors or middlemen. The police also want to probe if these individuals were involved in other illicit activities connected to the case.
The police had previously arrested Sood, Mittal, and Singh—three men linked to the juvenile at the time of the crash. They are accused of being involved in the blood sample swap, with Sood and Singh being the fathers of two minors who were with the juvenile during the incident.
The application to question all the accused was moved by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ganesh Ingale, the investigating officer in the case. The court granted permission for a face-to-face interrogation of the suspects to clarify any financial dealings and ascertain if any of the accused had offered any inducements or allurement to others in the case.
