The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Vishal Agarwal, the father of the minor accused in the 2024 Pune Porsche crash that killed two IT professionals, in the case involving the alleged swapping of the teenager’s blood samples to hide alcohol consumption.
The incident dates back to May 19, 2024, when the Porsche car allegedly driven by the 17-year-old boy under the influence of alcohol fatally knocked down two IT professionals in Pune's Kalyani Nagar area.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan granted bail to Agarwal, who is accused of hatching a conspiracy to swap the blood samples of the minor to ensure the occupants of the car got a 'Nil Alcohol' report.
The top court noted that the co-accused persons in the case have been granted relief and that the accused has been in jail for the past 22 months.
"We note that the appellant herein has been in jail for the last 22 months. The appellant has made out a case for bail. Bail granted subject to terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court," the bench ordered.
The Maharashtra government opposed the grant of bail and submitted that the ground of parity with other co-accused would not apply to Agarwal.
The top court, however, restrained Agarwal from contacting any witnesses in the case and directed the trial court to conclude the trial expeditiously.
"The petitioner shall not make any attempt to contact the witnesses either directly or indirectly. Any violation of the conditions shall entitle the state to seek cancellation of the bail. We also direct the concerned trial court to conclude the trial at the earliest," the bench ordered.
On February 27, the top court granted bail to a doctor arrested for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of the minor accused of crashing a Porsche car into a motorcycle in Pune and killing two persons.
It granted relief to Sassoon General Hospital's former medical superintendent, Dr Ajay Taware, on the grounds of parity.
The court, on February 2, granted bail to three accused in the case while observing that parents are to blame for such incidents involving juveniles as they do not have control over their children.
Noting that the accused — Amar Santish Gaikwad (an alleged middleman), Aditya Avinash Sood and Ashish Satish Mittal (the parents of two other juveniles in the car) — were in custody for 18 months, the top court granted them bail.
Sood (52) and Mittal (37) were arrested on August 19 last year as their blood samples were used for tests in connection with the two minors who were in the car along with the 17-year-old main accused at the time of the accident.
The Bombay High Court, on December 16 last year, rejected the bail pleas of eight accused, including Gaikwad, Sood and Mittal, in the case.
The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had granted bail to the minor accused on lenient terms, sparking nationwide outrage. The bail conditions included writing a 300-word essay on road safety.
As bail to the accused juvenile triggered outrage, the Pune Police approached the JJB to review its decision.
The board then modified the order and sent the juvenile to an observation home.
The high court subsequently ordered the release of the juvenile.
While the juvenile involved in the case was released from an observation home, 10 accused, including his parents Vishal Agarwal and Shivani Agarwal, doctors Ajay Taware and Shreehari Halnor, Sassoon Hospital staffer Atul Ghatkamble, Sood, Mittal and Arun Kumar Singh, were sent to jail in the blood sample-swapping case.
