“Porsche teenager from Pune was of sound mind. We are investigating whether the driver was pressured to take responsibility”: Top Cop

Pune Police on Friday said they are trying to build a “watertight” case against all the accused in the case in which the 17-year-old boy allegedly fatally hit two persons with his luxury car. Addressing the media, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said the minor was of sound mind at the time of the accident and knew what he was doing.

“We are trying to make it a watertight case. We have already filed charges against the accused’s father and the bar owners. Technical analysis of the evidence is underway,” Kumar said.

The officer said police had video footage of the defendant drinking alcohol in the bar.

“The point is that our case is not the only one. Depending on the blood count, we have other evidence too. He (the minor accused) was of sound mind. It was not that everyone was so drunk that they did not understand anything. They were fully aware that due to their behaviour, an incident as described under Section 304 could happen. There are no facts about the pizza party at the police station,” Kumar said.

On the allegation that the Agarwal family’s driver was pressured to take the blame for the accident, the official said: “During this time, attempts were made to replace the driver… We are also investigating this… It is true that the driver said at the beginning that he was driving the car… We are also investigating this part, under whose pressure the driver made this statement, we are investigating this.”

Regarding the allegations of preferential treatment of minors, the top police officer said an officer of ACP rank was investigating the allegations.

“On the allegations that the accused was given preferential treatment, the investigation has so far yielded nothing… If we receive information that the eyewitness has got into trouble, action will be taken against those police officers too… We have not received the blood test yet. The blood test was done right at the beginning and sent to forensics… We have asked forensics to take a DNA sample from both the samples,” he said.

Giving further details about the incident, the officer said that after the incident, a preliminary investigation was made under Section 304A and later Section 304 was added.

“The same day, we produced him in the juvenile court and urged that it be considered a heinous crime and the accused be treated as an adult. Until the order is made to treat the accused as an adult, we wanted to keep him in custody… Both our applications were rejected the same day… Under the Juvenile Justice Act, we have filed charges against his parents and the bar owner,” he said.

Regarding the delay in the minor’s medical examination, the official said: “We have not yet received any blood tests from the teenager. We have taken two separate samples and will check whether both are the same.”

Regarding reports that some eyewitnesses were harassed by the accused, Kumar said that no such evidence was available so far.

“We have started the process of appointing a special prosecutor in this case so that our side is strongly represented in court. The police will handle this case strictly,” he added.

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