In a significant ruling on Wednesday, the Bombay High Court refused to grant anticipatory bail to the father of a minor involved in the tragic Porsche car crash in Pune that resulted in the deaths of two IT professionals in May.
Justice Manish Pitale, presiding over the case, concluded that there were sufficient grounds to believe that the applicant might have committed an offence. The applicant’s son, a minor, was reportedly in the Porsche’s rear seat during the accident and was allegedly intoxicated along with the juvenile driver.
The incident occurred in the early hours of May 19 in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area, where the high-speed car collided with a motorcycle, instantly killing two riders, one of whom was a woman.
Further complicating the case is the allegation against the parents of the driver. They are accused of bribing medical professionals to substitute their son’s blood samples with those of his mother. A similar accusation has been leveled against the applicant, who allegedly conspired to switch his own son’s blood samples at Sassoon Hospital, a government facility.
While other individuals connected to the case have been apprehended, the applicant has evaded arrest, a fact highlighted by the police during court proceedings.
Representing the applicant, senior counsel Aabad Ponda argued that his client could only be charged under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to the concealment of evidence—a bailable offence. However, public prosecutor Shishir Hiray countered that the sessions court had already assessed the modus operandi of the applicant and other co-accused and had rightly denied the bail application earlier.
