According to police, the driver was offered cash and gifts by the family and later threatened to take the blame for the accident

The father and grandfather of the 17-year-old minor allegedly involved in the Porsche accident offered cash and gifts to the family driver and later threatened to take the blame for the accident, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said on Saturday.

The driver and his family would be given police protection, he said. The reports of blood and DNA samples in the case are expected next week, Kumar said. Police have arrested the grandfather for allegedly depriving the driver of his liberty to force him to claim that he was driving the car at the time of the May 19 accident, he said.

After the accident, the driver stated at the police station that he was behind the wheel at the time of the accident. But it turned out that a teenager was driving the car, the police commissioner said. Kumar said that after the driver left the Yerawada police station, where the case was registered, and started walking, both the accused took him in a car to his house on the premises of their bungalow, confiscated his phone and locked him there.

He was pressured to give his statement to the police as per their instructions, he said. The driver was offered gifts and cash and later threatened to take the blame, the official said. The driver’s wife arrived the next day and rescued him, the police chief said. The driver was frightened. He was summoned and his statement was recorded on Thursday.

After confirming the facts, an offence was registered against the youth’s father and grandfather, he said. In the matter, the police have registered a case against the teenager’s father, Vishal Agarwal, and his grandfather on the complaint of the family’s driver. Agarwal, a real estate developer, and his father have been booked under sections 365 (abduction with intent to secretly and unlawfully confine a person) and 368 (wrongful concealment or confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, he said.

Agarwal is already in judicial custody. The driver’s family said in a statement that he was not driving the car at the time of the accident and that the teenager’s relatives had been pressuring him to take responsibility for the accident. The driver and his family are being provided police protection, Kumar said, adding that he is in shock after his wrongful detention.

Pune Police on Friday suspended two policemen, including an inspector from Yerwada police station, for late reporting and dereliction of duty in the case. Kumar said the policemen face action as their conduct was inappropriate. The Porsche, allegedly driven by the teenager, who police said was drunk, killed two software engineers riding motorcycles in the Kalyani Nagar area of ​​the city in the early hours of Sunday (May 19).

A local court in Pune on Friday remanded the six accused arrested in the case, including the teenager’s father, in judicial custody. The teenager has been remanded in an observation home until June 5. The parents of the two IT professionals killed in the accident, who live in Madhya Pradesh, have demanded that the Supreme Court monitor the investigation and that the trial be held in their state.